Preparations: Part 1

"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt - a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the Lord', for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more."

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Journeying to a place that is so Biblically historical and significant to one's faith requires a bit of stepping back and making room for possibility. I remember visiting the city of Ur (where Abram's father is from) when I was in Iraq and it seemed very surreal. To be quite honest, at the time I wasn't even certain that the place really existed until I heard that it was just outside our base! Until then, it had only been the name of a place in the Bible. Although I have not had these same kind of uncertainties with the land of Israel (probably because it is in the news all of the time) but the idea of traveling roads and standing on ground that was trodden by Jesus and the disciples and a people who struggled with life and faith just as I do but so many years ago is amazing. I know that the soil, water, and air that I will touch is not exactly the same as they touched, or breathed, but there is a shared experience between us nonetheless. When I walked through the halls of what is presumed to be Abram's father's house in Ur, I could imagine Abram as a little boy running past me 4000 (or so) years ago. And I wondered how many times he fell down the drain in the kitchen because it was a hole in the floor twice the diameter of a small child! I also feel a shared experience with my parents whenever I drive into Montana from the east. What I see now and what they saw when they moved there in 1964 are not so different...the rolling prairie hills, the Big Horn mountains to the west, the lay of the land, the wide open road, the color of the sky, the wonderment of it all. Looking beyond what we have experienced in the world around us to the presence and existence of it all, allows us to be connected to people we may not even know. There's a core to our mere existence. It's a core that runs not only through us as people but that runs through all of creation. This is where I begin my journey to the Holy Land.......