"Hosanna, shout hosanna!"
We've made it into Jerusalem and are snugly tucked into our hotel (which is BEAUTIFUL!!) As usual, it was another busy day of holy sites. But despite the busy-ness of every day so far, the experience has been very different each day. The first day was very emotional, the second day was very physical and today, our third day of touring, was very political. Our tour guide,
Wisam, is Palestinian and explained many things about the Israel-Palestine conflict. And as we
drove into Jerusalem, it was indeed a disturbing site to see the beloved city surrounded by an ugly cement wall.
Jericho
Before we made our way to Israel in the afternoon, we went to Jericho, which is the oldest known city in the world -- 10,000 years old! It is also the lowest city in the world, at 1300 ft below sea level. A couple interesting things about Jericho: 1) They found tombs that dated 6,000 years ago, in which people were buried in special positions. Basically, this showed that they had developed faith, while other civilizations were still hunting and gathering, living in caves. 2) The "wall of Jericho" that we love to sing about, probably never existed! At least not at the time of the Israelite people.
Qumeran
Located in caves along the face of the mountains by the Dead Sea, scrolls, writings and other artifacts have been discovered and preserved. The most famous of course are the Dead Sea Scrolls. We saw one of the caves w
hich housed some of these artifacts as well as the ruins of a Bedouin community.
Bethlehem
What a blessing to be traveling with a descendant of the shepherds! Wisam can trace his family back many, many years, and they were shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem. Very neat! We saw the Shepherd's Field (from a distance) and then were allowed to sit in a traditional shepherd's cave. These natural caves served (and still serve) people as temporary homes, stables for animals and a place to retreat from the elements.
We were also blessed to have Wisam take us to his own church where we saw beautiful carvings made by his grandfather. His grandfather, father, uncles, brothers, cousins and himself are all carvers, creating great and important pieces which have been gifted to many important people.
Our final stop in Bethlehem was to the spot where Jesus was born, which is one of the well-documented sites in the holy land. It was interesting to discover that the "stable" is not at all like the images we are used to seeing, but is actually a cave which was probably under the house of Joseph's family. Mary may have decided to go down to the cave to give birth, not because there was no room, but to avoid making her relative's house "unclean" (a cultural idea at the time).
Jerusalem
As we mentioned earlier, we had to enter the city through an Israeli checkpoint at a small opening in the wall. As we entered, we listened to music and sang songs in celebration of the holy city. We'll be spending more time in Jerusalem tomorrow, but today we spent time having lunch together, doing some shopping and checking into our hotel. We could hardly believe it, but the food here is even better than the last hotel! Yum...
Tomorrow we will begin our morning with worship at an Anglican church which holds an English-speaking service. We are all looking forward to a little quiet time to connect with God in this holy land. Much of our time is spent in a hurry and flurry of postcards, site tours and quick lunches. The opportunity to worship God in this land where His presence is so evident will be a welcome reprieve.
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