Our bus-full of people from a wide range of cultures began to pull together.
All too often, a diverse group of people will succumb to tendencies toward ‘each man to himself’. But our group set aside the common selfishness that, all too often, tries to rear its head. Our group included people of an age, and with traumatic backgrounds, that could have slowed us down and led to frustration and impatience. We moved too slow, stopped too often, and struggled to manage the thousands of stairs and miles of hills along our path.
Yet our team sacrificed any aggressive drive to GO! and SEE! and HURRY! so that all could come, experience, and walk where Jesus walked.
Our guide had a ringside seat
from which to witness the body of Christ function as it was meant to. Giving triumphed over taking, and did so with a smile and a tender word at each step. We formed into a supportive family, and at the same time, opened up to include another - a seeker.
Perhaps he did not yet know that he was a seeker of spiritual truth, but the gentle force of inclusive love was a force that surely could not be successfully resisted for long.
Our hearts, made tender by the touch of our Jewish Savior
opened the hearts and arms of our team to include our Jewish tour guide.
We walked the hills and paths of God’s favorite place on the whole earth. Psalm 87 says, “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” And that love of a place and a people grew stronger in our hearts as we soaked up the reality of “He walked right here!”
As our guide shared stories
from “The Book”, he read and heard Words that, fanned alive by the Spirit, had to be progressively turning the soil of his heart. And as we tourists responded to the prodding of that same Spirit to pray, God worked the seed of that Word into the soil. Time alone will tell if that soil will support seed to grow into eternal fruit.
Our prayers continue
to bring this lovely man before God's rememberance.