Elf. Winter Wonderland. Candy Canes. Evergreen trees. Chesnuts roasing on an open fire. Sleighs rides in snow. Perfectly good red and green fabric wasted as tacky sweaters. Eggnog. Santa Claus. Rudolph. Bells that jingle. White elephant gift exchanges.
These are what we associate with Christmas in North America. Yet do you actually ride in a sleigh outfitted with jingling bells and horses? Does decorating a tree with a rainbow of glass and metal orbs and a string of lights conjure up images of Christ as a newborn baby?
For the first four hours, we stuck close to the trail markers, only slightly wandering off to explore some cool-looking caves or to navigate around a large yet seemingly deserted Bedouin village that we hoped was not hostile. . . Then we came upon “the cave.” It was far off the trail and high in the side of a mountain. But from where we stood, it looked like the mother of all desert caves. . .Two-and-a-half hours later, we left the cave (turned out to be kind of a letdown) and hiked to the top of that mountain, which was easily one of the tallest in the desert. Being the optimists we are, we expected to see the sparkling blue water of the Dead Sea on the other side of the peak. The view wasn’t exactly what we had anticipated. Oh, we could see the Dead Sea alright, but the several miles of desert in front of it turned us off a little bit.
photo by Sam MongoniaThen we noticed two military helicopters flying toward us from the Dead Sea. . . Then we heard a far-off, booming sound that we both swore could have been an explosion. . .Without the motivation of a cool dip in the Dead Sea, we wearily trudged back into the Judean Wilderness, perhaps through the same area Jesus ventured into during his 40-day fast and temptation. Thank God the fate of humanity did not rest in my hands on this day because by our eighth hour in the desert, I can’t guarantee what would have happened if the devil had tempted me with a strawberry lemonade Slurpee. If he would have told me I could turn a rock into a Chipwich, it would have been all over.
We have been in Israel for one week now and what can I say other then I
can’t believe I’m here! The backyard of where we’re staying is
literally miles and miles of beautiful desert. One morning we even woke
up to a herd of camels passing through. It was so cool!
There is so much depth in Israel, so much history. Jesus walked here.
He died here and He rose here. Everything that I believe in, everything
I have built my life on started here in this tiny nation. It’s epic.
