All week I’ve been thinking about my trip to Israel six months ago. I feel like I have a different perspective on the path Jesus followed, literally speaking. We walked in the footsteps of Jesus and the disciples and gained a new perspective on what we’ve been taught from childhood. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. We visited the site of the stable. We walked into the shepherd’s field and imagined a heavenly host of angels declaring his birth and salvation. We went to Galilee and floated around in the very same sea where He did some miraculous fishing… for fish and men! We stepped our feet into the River Jordan and watched as so many were baptized. And we finished with Jerusalem, so vibrant, so beautiful, and so holy.
Sunrise over Galilee 
Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem 
Jerusalem 
The Garden Tomb 
The Garden Tomb – Jerusalem 
Jerusalem 
The Garden Tomb – Jerusalem
To think that he entered Jerusalem on a donkey with praise and glory and honor after a long journey. I entered Jerusalem on foot after a long bus ride, but as we were coming down the freeway and around the bend just as the “City on a Hill”, “The Holy City”, “The City of David”…. the tour bus driver started playing “O Jerusalem” and it was very moving. The thought that we went up on the Mount of Olives and looked out over the ancient city is truly chilling. The walk down the steep hill to the gates of the Garden of Gethsemane, picturing the scene of the ear getting cut off and restored, and understanding the inability of the disciples to even stay awake long enough to pray with their Lord.
We drove to the gates of Jerusalem and entered where the wailing wall, the Western Wall, is located. We wrote our prayers and joined the crowds of Jews and Christians there to pray at the most iconic site of prayer. We walked the Via de la Rosa, noting the stations of the Cross. We saw the two most likely sites of Golgatha and the Garden Tomb. Tomorrow marks the Risen Savior and I am so thankful for his love, forgiveness, and salvation. I cannot wait for him to return and to be in his presence continually.