You can tell you're an official Oregonian when:

• You pull into a gas station and don't even think about getting out of the car.
• You realize that every tan line on your body has disappeared and you are equally pale everywhere.
• Your mind doesn't automatically add 10% to every potential purchase to cover the sales tax.

But you haven't really arrived until you know what goes in cans labeled

• trash
• compostables
• recycle
• garbage
• landfill

I haven't reached this level of indigenousness and doubt I ever will.

My sermon in Puerto Rico a week from today will look at the healing of the leper in Mark 1. I'll start out by explaining that sometimes there's more to a Bible passage than meets the eye at first glance. In this case, the healing is a picture of our salvation.

My introduction will illustrate this dynamic - there's more here than you may realize - by showing them this painting by the Dutch artist Hans Holbein titled The Ambassadors. 

Two guys, right. But much more.

The guy on the left was an actual person and a political ambassador from France to England. The guy on the right was also an historical person, a clergyman, an ambassador for God. The items on top of the table and on the lower shelf are all symbolic of the two kingdoms they represent. On the left a terrestrial globe, and on the right an ancient device that showed the position of the celestial bodies. The book on the left side of the lower shelf is a mathematics text while in front of the lute is a book of Luther's hymns in German. The lute has one broken string (hmmm), and that diagonal swath at the bottom of the painting is a skull that can be clearly seen as such only when the portrait is viewed from the upper right or lower left. That mosaic on the floor matches that on the floor in front of the altar at Westminster Abbey. 

There's other things, but you get the point. There's lots more to this painting than two guys standing next to a table. 

On the way into town we drive by Fern Ridge Reservoir, which we've been told is one of the best birding areas in the state. This morning we saw a huge flock of ducks that must have contained several hundred birds. 

Pam: I'm surprised ducks fly in the rain.

Me: Why?

Pam: Because the rain hits them and makes them heavier. 

And I don't have to pay extra for the entertainment.