Remembering One of My Favorite Places

Have you ever noticed how you can find the most interesting things when you're looking for something else?  It could happen when you're out shopping for the "perfect" purse, but instead come across a cute scarf or pair of sandals.  Often it happens when I'm searching all over the house for some lost item, and then "discover" a treasure I hadn't seen in ages.

That happened to me this morning.  As I was searching through the bookshelf for a book I wanted to use in research for a writing project, I came across another book, completely unrelated to the project at hand.  So, my original project was put on hold and I began re-reading this delightful little book.


I purchased this little book shortly after our first trip to Israel, and I have enjoyed it immensely.  It's sort of a combination of travelogue, as the author recounts experiences from his travels in the Holy Land, and devotional, as he connects the people and places of Israel with the Scriptures. 

As I read this little book, I travel down memory lane to the places we visited, recalling the sights and sounds and smells of the land, and remembering the people we met along the way.  And once again today, as I was distracted from my original purpose by this little book, I'm remembering our visits to Israel and looking forward to our next visit in December.

Today, my mind has taken me - as it often does - to En Gedi, one of my favorite places in Israel.  It was at En Gedi, on our first visit to Israel in 2010, during our Sunday morning worship, that Psalm 42 really came alive for me.  I've written about this before.  There's something really special about being in this place......

seeing these deer........

and then reading "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God."  (Psalm 42:1-2a, NIV)

I can never read those verses now, or sing that chorus, without remembering being at En Gedi.  En Gedi is a dry, barren place where it's really hard for a deer to find a drink of water.  On a hot day in the desert, wouldn't a cool drink of water be ever so refreshing?  That's what I think about when I remember En Gedi, and when I read Psalm 42.  Now, whenever I read that Psalm, I have to ask myself......how thirsty am I? Do I really long for God the way one of those thirsty deer would long for water?  When I sing that chorus, do I really mean it? That's one of the treasures I brought home with me from Israel, after having walked many of the places where Jesus walked, and after having experienced the context of the Bible.

What a blessing.....an absolute treasure....to have traveled to the land of the Bible, to have walked where Jesus walked!  I can't wait to go back! 

We're going again in December.  Won't you come go with us?  There's information about the trip at this link: http://www.templetontours.com/holyland/31201.pdf

In the meantime, I'll be remembering previous trips.  Looking at pictures over and over.  Treasuring the memories and the lessons learned.  And enjoying this little book that distracted me this morning.