Finding Meaning the Desert

One of the most treasured highlights of this past year came to us in the form of an unprecedented opportunity (thanks to a very generous FSM supporter) to take a 12-day study trip to the country of Israel! Daily, we visited 5-7 biblical sites, hiked many miles over rough terrain, listened eagerly to hours of historical and devotional teaching from our Israeli guide Dan and Tennessee Pastor Mark Whitehead (Arbel Ministries), and wept tears of awe and wonder that wouldn’t stop flowing as we experienced walking the very ground where our Lord Jesus did!

We were deeply impacted by what we saw and heard – places like the Emmaus Road, the site of Jesus’ baptism, the Mount of Beatitudes, sailing on the Sea of Galilee, walking on the streets in Capernaum where the woman with the issue of blood was healed, sitting under the 2000 year old trees at the Mount of Olives, standing in the possible site of Golgotha, and entering the Garden tomb – it was all profound beyond words. As one friend put it, it was like a “thin place” – where Heaven seemed so close that we could almost touch Him and where we were overcome with the deep assurance again that everything we’ve believed in, put our hope in, and built our whole lives upon is REAL REAL REAL! Realer than real!

We came away with so many new insights and such helpful cultural context – information and impressions that we’ll probably be unpacking for years to come. One of those impressions had to do with our view of the “desert/wilderness”. Crazy how you can think a certain way about something and not even realize that you do.