What really stood out to me most about today, was something
one of the girls, Sarah, said as our group was sitting around on the shore of
the Sea of Galilee tonight debriefing about the program so far. It was one of
the last comments of the night but it really hit me. She said something along
the lines of, “I’m glad that God isn’t here anymore than he is a home. He isn’t
present here more, we don’t need to come here in order to find Him. God is
present everywhere.” I think that this was a good reminder that God is also
back home, I can grow and learn about him just as much there as I can here.
While I have learned a lot this trip, both in my faith and understanding of
God, when I go home it the learning doesn’t have to end. I think that recently
I have just been closed off to what God was doing in my life, and not wanting
to see His presence. Coming to Israel, and being in the program I am in, I had
a mindset to be very focused on what I was studying, how it applied to my life
and understanding of the Bible, and I came here with a great desire to be open
to what God was saying to me. While it
may have taken this program to really push to being more open to what God was
saying, God was there with me back in Wheaton, back in Santa Barbara. This
offhand comment at the end of our long debrief was such a good reminder of the
constant presence of God and His constant love for us; He will not abandon us,
he will love us to the ends of the earth.
We started
out the morning leaving our hostel in Nazareth, and heading to Sepphoris. Here
we saw many ancient mosaics still intact. The most striking one however, was
the one found in the ancient synagogue. This mosaic depicted scenes from the
Pentateuch and symbols of the synagogue, but also the zodiac calendar. We
discussed what it meant to be Jewish in this time, but more importantly, how
does one deal with and reconcile their faith and the culture they are in. Christianity is countercultural, both now and
in antiquity. How can we love our enemies and care for the poor in a culture
that is so materialistic and all about me. It was good to think about this
issue here, as this example, albeit not one we want to emulate, of the
combination of religion and culture sat in front of us. We saw another such
mosaic at Bet Alpha, which we visited later in the afternoon. Here again there
were images of the temple, Biblical stories, and a zodiac calendar.
We then
headed back to Nazareth and went to up one of the hills that overlooked the
Jezreel Valley. We able to look out upon the fertile valley below us and see
the rocky hills of Nazareth It was easy
to understand why Nathaniel would say, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from
there?” John 1:46. After we left this mountain top and went to Bet Shean. The prevalence
of the Roman Empire in the area was so evident here.
We drove
north, further into Galilee, until we reached our hostel that was right on the
north shore of the Sea of Galilee. We all immediately ran to the water and
jumped in. The water was cool and refreshing after a long day in the sun. As we
ventured out farther in to the water, and as our feet sunk into the mud on the
bottom of the lake, one of the girls, not so sarcastically said, “I can see why
Jesus walked on top of the water.” After this time we had to relax, we got
together as a group and for the first time had the chance to debrief with one
another. It was good to hear how everyone was doing and thoughts that we were
wrestling with. I was good to get together and work through our thoughts and
questions, that many of us had had, together.
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