After about 14 ½ hours in the air and about
24 hours of travel, we made it home last night. Thankfully, we were given an
extra hour with the “fall back” time change!
We had the opportunity to see history from
different eras:
-
From the time of the First
Temple (8th – 6th Centuries BCE) at Megiddo, Jericho and
Jerusalem,
-
From the time of Jesus and the
Second Temple (60 BCE to 70 AD) at Caesarea, Capernaum, Galilee, Bethany beyond
the Jordan, Qumran, Jerusalem and Bethlehem,
-
From the time of the Romans at
all of the times for Jesus plus Caesarea Philippi and Jerash,
-
From the time of the Byzantine
empire (330 ~ 690 AD) and crusaders (1095 – 1291) – especially in some churches
and left over strongholds,
-
From the time of the various
iterations of Caliphates and the Turks, with a special nod to Petra in this
period,
-
From the time of the British
(early 1900’s to 1948),
-
And finally from the modern
state of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
We also saw a great diversity of landscape
ranging from the coastal plain to the highlands on either side of the Jordan to
the amazing wild of Wadi Rum, to the Galilee and the Dead Sea.
We have met wonderful people from every
area, and found the Jordanians particularly hospitable. The guides were each
full of information and also left us with fond memories of each of them as
persons living in this tumultuous area. Of course we were also blessed with
wonderful travel mates, and friendships were made or deepened by this
experience.
On the political front, we are much more
aware of the complexities of the area. Here is a Jewish nation who have been
hardened by the experience of centuries, indeed millennia of discrimination
crowned by the genocide of the Holocaust. It is not a united group, indeed more
divided that what we see in Canada, between the Orthodox Jews, those who come
from elsewhere to set up Jewish Settlements in the West Bank (substantially
increasing tension), the majority of observant or non-observant Jews who wish
to find a peaceful coexistence with the Arab community within Palestine,
Israeli Arabs, Arab Christians, and a small (mostly Orthodox) Christian
community. It is a complex world, surrounded by complex relations with Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon, the remnants of Syria, and the rest of the Arab Islamic world.
We have a sense of the tension over the Temple Mount, and the deep distrust on
both sides.
We also have had a glimpse into a world
where water is such a precious resource, and has been a deciding factor for
thousands of years. We are blessed in Canada in just so many ways.
From the perspective of faith, it has been
deeply stirring. To have been in the areas where Jesus grew up and where he did
most of his ministry provides so much sense of context to the stories we have been
hearing since our childhoods. To walk the areas of Jerusalem that Jesus spent
his final hours and days within seems somehow more complex, but no doubt will
have its own impact. Mostly, all of this history seems more real now. And it
also leaves me with the full sense that Jesus is not to be found in these
places, but maybe it can help us find our own connection with Him.
Gentle reader, thank you for coming with us
on this journey. May this journey be a blessing to each of you as it has been
for us.
