We went around as tourists, as usual, despite the rainy weather mostly in Nuremberg where we took pictures of traditional German houses. I thought there were ribbons around ’em. The edges were painted red.

A traditional German house

We went into a church. Apparently there are a lot of churches in these German cities, even standing in the same complex. I think there are seven in Munich centrum.

I thought about why we’ve been visiting churches in this road trip, and if it’s impossible not to visit them when one travels. We started with all those enormous Roman churches in Italy, and then Germany has a lot of these Roman churches as well.

In Nuremberg, this church we got into was simple, plain, but high-ceilinged, and as expected, the service was in German. While trying to pray with the rest of my group, I couldn’t help but be awed by these groups of people sharing the same religion, Christianity, which is the namesake of a man who lived in Israel centuries ago, and who was totally not from this part of the world.

So I wondered, how was Jesus marketed during His time, or after His death for that matter? There were no TVs or mass media then, so one can surmise that it’s all word-of-mouth. This is probably the most successful word-of-mouth marketing case study in history. And His name and story spread across the world, that now, we are celebrating Christmas. A few hours from now, in fact. Even our time-keeping is influenced by Him. It’s either B.C. or A.D.

All these tourist destinations that we’ve been visiting, there is not the absence of a Catholic church. And normally, these buildings date back hundreds of years ago, and you wonder how these churches have become part of history, or influenced history itself.

I wonder if the history of the Church is the history of the world.

Roman Catholic churches abound in Germany

*This is part of a 68-Day Travel Diary called Reflections of a Nearly Thirty. Read the full Reflections Series here.