HOLY LAND, HOLY GROUND
Going to Tiberias on the second day, our bus crested a hill and our first view of the Sea of Galilee “looked like the land of milk & honey.” Behind us was sand and thatch, before us was the lush green valley. We were awed by the calm of the Sea of Galilee.
For most of us having grown up hearing Bible stories, we had a different version of Jesus when walked on water. We pictured the Sea of Galilee looking like a Great Lake that you could not see the other side of, yet standing on the shore we could see both sides and from end to end.
The next morning was quite a contrast to the peace we had been feeling. Touring the Golan Heights, we were completely taken aback. We had seen the modern day Israeli city of Tel Aviv and now we saw the remnants of modern day warfare, barbed wire fences, bunkers, and land mine signs along the sides of the road. We also saw the stark parallel of time as the archeological digs had unearthed rock fences and rooms from previous cities and past warfare from that small country’s history of turmoil over thousands of years.
Returning that afternoon to the Sea of Galilee, we prayed on the Mount of Beatitudes. Sitting on that hillside looking out over the land below you could imagine that it must have looked very similar in Jesus day. Trying to imagine what it was like, picturing Jesus and the disciples walking in that heat, going from Capernaum to Jerusalem.
Near the end of the trip we were entering Jerusalem. Seeing the city walls and gates described in the Old and New Testaments was august. Inside we visited many places Scripture tells us Jesus had visited and performed miracles. We could see ...