The Mount of Beatitudes

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will ear or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

 Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

 And why do you worry about clothes?

"See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

"If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

"So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them.

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Adoption Rocks

I have to pause here for a second and switch gears because my friend Meg posted today about a family who is trying to adopt a little boy with Down Syndrome from Eastern Europe, which isn't cheap. There are few things that I am as passionate about as adoption, especially those children who don't have people lining up to take them.  And since I can't say anything nearly as eloquently as Danielle's mother's heart (because SHE is who is most passionate about it), I'm just going to send you over there. Please go and donate, at least a smidge. And if you don't link through here, go link through the sidebar button. Hey, and for those of us in the throes of tax season, this is exciting: donations are tax deductible.

"The Jesus Boat"

"I own no wealth, I have no property, my greatest asset is my friends." And clearly, the quote(ED) is cut off in the photo. I believe it was the selfsame person the building was named for. Not that I can remember what that is either. But I thought the quote and the mosaics lovely.

 In a place filled with people who swear by the fact that Jesus prayed his last prayer on This Rock and was beaten on That Rock and was born in This Cave and placed in This Manger, it was refreshing to go to a museum with a 2000 year old boat that, while called the Jesus Boat, didn't claim to actually hold the Savior (though it that could have was emphasized).

 It was interesting to help understand the size and construction of a typical fishing boat from the times. A) Pretty small. B) pretty rickety.

 Can you imagine falling asleep on those ribs while a storm was squalling around you? This is no yacht. Jesus must have been so exhausted as to have been dead on his feet.

 And their model of what it might have looked like before 2000 years of rot set in. So maybe it was more comfortable than that shell would indicate.

 And the second most impressive thing here (behind the honesty that this probably was NOT Jesus' boat) was the gift shop. My only regret is that I didn't shop more. We bought these.

Our awesome guide Tzvi. I miss his humor. In fact I plain miss Israel, danger be darned.

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programming to Bring You This Very Important Message

This guy, the one who took me to the Sea of Galilee...

And made me swim in it, even though it was freezing, because you just should...

who gets up with me to see sunrises because they are important to me

who participated in baptizing me in the Jordan River

and got baptized there himself

who loves Jerusalem with a passion,

and can make friends with a doorpost (not that ANYONE in this photo could be described as a doorpost)

who is looks very young in relation to this 800 year old olive tree

This one, who has recently been outed as "Brent"

who sneaks off from the tour group with me so that we can see things that the tour won't see

and carries the bags when I tire of doing so

and slathers himself in Dead Sea mud because he's a good sport

who walks on walls and rests in recesses

and finds a way to see things that are hard to see (AKA takes me out of my comfort zone)

who doesn't take himself too seriously

like I said....

HE is my very best friend.

AND he is 35 today.

Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift.

The Sea of Galilee (March 15)

As I'd seen where the sun went down the night before, I had a pretty good idea where the sun would come up. When I woke at 5:50, I sat bolt upright in bed, flung back the blakets and started yanking on clothes. At 5:55, Brent, who is decidedly less frantic about seeing every sunrise he can and therefore a slower dresser gave me permission to go out alone. I sprinted for the exit and was greeted by this:

 Trust me, this picture does no justice. I immediately burst into tears, it was such a gift. It brought a whole new meaning to "let heaven and nature sing." I could hear their song.

 Every morning we were in Tiberias I watched these fishermen pull in their nets just as they have done since the time of Peter.

By this time, Brent had joined me. We stood and watched the fishermen and my smart-ass husband monologued: Not getting very many fish.....(stage whisper) Throw the nets on the other side!.....bet they've never heard that one before.

He can always make me laugh so hysterically that I disturb the peace.

Our hotel. I don't have much to say about it. Except that they, too, had delicious brie, cucumbers and tomatoes for breakfast. And it was considerably nicer than our hotel in Tel Aviv. And it overlooked the Sea of Galilee, which is about the size of our local reservoir. However our room did not overlook the water. We overlooked the road on the other side.  Our breakfast room overlooked the water. We enjoyed that.

And....."It's OK. This is the Middle East, not the Middle West."

March 14, All Wrapped Up.

And it was morning....

Travel weary and sleep deprived in Tel Aviv at the Med Sea.

And it was evening....

Sea of Galilee, Tiberias.

The first day.

Update your blog much?

I just realized I haven't updated my "about me" for three years. I know because my children are considerably older than it said.

All I updated was their ages. Can't say whether anything else is still true.

Meggido, Nazareth, and the Obligatory Armed Soldier (Still March 14)

Ruins.....they all begin to look alike. But these are at Meggido, where civilization was built atop conquored civilization at a strategic crossroads. It is also very high (and grew higher with each new civilization). Standing atop, you can see how many millions of troops it would take for them to gather and fill the plains of Armageddon. And how the slaughter of them all would fill a valley with blood. It was a bit eerie. And far too peaceful for it's rep.

Something like 27 layers of civilizations.

The plains of Armageddon. Can you visualize it filled with gathered troops?

Exceedingly deep water channel. And Brent's bum.

In case you were in need of an ark of the covenant for your living room...

No clue.

Can anything good come from Nazareth?

The armed soldier strolling down the road was still a novelty at this point.

 And at about this point in the day we were thinking, "Dear Lord is this what the next two weeks are going to be? Bus, bus, bus, look around for 5 minutes, bus, stand on an overlook and freeze, bus, history lesson, bus, as we watch Israel pass by though our bus windows?" 


As it turns out, our guide was rushing us through the mediocre so that would could camp in Jerusalem. Which is where I will camp soon. :)


I miss my tour friends. Someone needs to get it when I slap a table and scream, "Shut UP!"

Caesarea Maritima, the Roman Capital of Judea (March 14)

Here the Centurion Cornelius heard the Gospel preaching of Peter and later Paul made his defense before King Agrippa prior to his final journey to Rome. (Or so says the guide book.) Like Dubai of today, Caesarea Maritima was built out into the sea, and if the re-creation movie can be believed, it was something to behold. But alas, earthquakes and time and this is what is left.


The water was a lovely, stunning, blue.

The amphitheater is a re-build.

We only got 15 minutes of free time, so we didn't quite make it over there to see what we were missing.

vaults and latrines and mosaics, oh my!

You know what they say about the size of a man's foot...

Compensating for something, are we king?

Auaduct

Pretty water via aquaduct. (pun intended)

"It's a secret place."

Tombs, tombs, everywhere.