INCREDIBLE day. LONG day. We're gonna do it all again tomorrow. But--today we got breakfast at 6:30, was out the door by 7:15 and learning about Jerusalem's geography with our new guide and instructor from Jerusalem University College (JUC), Cyndi. To get you all introduced, Cyndi is in her 30's, is as tall as me with curly brown hair. She went to seminary, came to take a 3 week course at JUC and decided to stay for a year, which turned into 5 when she was offered a job here and now she is starting her doctorate, working on creation motifs in Deuteronomy. She's going to be a great leader!
Today we traipsed up and down steps (there are lots of steps in this city-on-a-hill) looking at old archeological digs and findings (they're everywhere in this city with so much history!), geographical features that influence the lives of people in the Bible and those who live there today, and through other adventures! Each day we have to write a page of "impressions" about what we learned, and I thought I would share that with you. It's not edited or organized, just my thoughts. Before I copy-paste, I thought I'd give you and update on me: I'm totally wiped from our big day from today but loving Israel! I'm loving the kids we're meeting who are studying at JUC--there are about 70 of them, which means that our 46 practically doubles their school! It's basically our home base, and we're considered students for this month. Ok, here's what I got for you: (it's long... read what you want and stop when you want) :)
Today was our first day out in Jerusalem. As my feet carried me up and down the many stairs connecting the different levels of the city, over cream-colored Roman stones and through ten inches of water deep underground, the feel of the city (as every city has a “feel”) was gradual. It has deep and meaningful secrets, willing to slowly reveal them to those who dig into its complicated history.
I learned that the land is an entity in itself throughout the history of the people living here. When we first talked about this in class it was just a fact that I recorded obediently on my page of notes; now I am beginning to realize what it means. This city is set apart from the others we have traveled to. The people are like the buildings, rooted in the bedrock of the hill, loyal and proud of the place they have in this city that connects so many others. Hearing from both Ayman and Moshe opened the meaning of this up for me, the way Ayman’s family has lived in that same building for 387 years—a common thread connecting the family in a way I could never understand or experience, and how, to Moshe, this city is the city of his Father and his chosen ones. Even for those who come for a short time, the city lets you enter as a traveler and exit as one who was changed, leaving part of yourself behind. The more I walk on these stones the more I feel the city soak into my heart and mind like water seeps into a towel whose corner was dipped into the pool. I think the best word for the “feel” of this city is wisdom, subtle, strong, and lasting.
What also stood out to me from our tour today was standing on the lookout from the City of David and reading Psalm 125:1-2, “Those who trust in the LORD are as Mount Zion which cannot be moved but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem so the LORD surrounds his people from this time forth and forever.” After reading this—yes! The mountains nestle close to the city as though it is an egg in a well-built nest. It is a foreign concept for me, to identify both so strongly with a place and God and his love as being together.
Our chilly morning view of the hills surrounding Jerusalem. I'm not sure which one this is, I'll let you know! I think it's Mount Zion in the front, Western Hill in the back. All the hills look like this, with square houses covering them!
We also sloshed through Hezekiah’s tunnel, a tunnel deep underground, cut into the bedrock of the city during the time of the righteous king Hezekiah (2 Chronicals 32:1-5, 2 Kings 20:20). Basically, Hezekiah had a tunnel built to bring water from the Gihon spring outside the city into the Pool of Saloam inside the city. I’m a little claustrophobic, I don’t like the feeling of being trapped, of being somewhere where I know I can’t get out of. This tunnel pretty much defines that but gosh darnnit it this is one of the coolest things I’ll get the chance to do in my life so I’m going to do it and God and I are going to get over this fear in me. So I prayed that he would keep me calm, that anxiety would not cloud the epicness of the moment, the chance to fully understand and appreciate what I was doing. So, I walked down the slippery stairs in my thin, white Vans socks, pulled up my skirt and walked into two and a half feet of water and a tunnel that I would have to duck most of the way through. The water level dropped to about six to ten inches for the rest of the trip, my jacketed arms would slide between the narrow rough rock walls that still bears chisel marks from those who cut it so many years ago. Everyone was squealing at the cool water, the Indiana-Jones-type of adventure we were having in the darkness and the glow of flashlight beams. And God was there, the whole time, and we were IN the foundations of the city: on biblegateway.com I found 75 entries for “foundation”, this was my favorite:
“For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s; on them he has set the world.” (2 Sam 2:8b)
Yeah he has. It continues:
“He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.” (v.9)
Walking through that tunnel, we experienced both his care (that there was NOT an earthquake or something) and what it is like to be in such a “place of darkness” as we kept walking between the cut in the bedrock. Cool, huh?
Though I know God is with me wherever I am, there is no denying that something about this city is special, God has spoken the name of this city, he chose this as the place for his people to come and for his son to be offered as the ultimate sacrifice. Even in Revelation, when it describes the place where everything is made right it is called the “new Jerusalem”—not the “new Centennial, Colorado”, that’s for sure.
Another thought I have is Christianity is real here, it’s full, coming here changes my entire faith but I can’t put it into words. Coming here you see the physical stuff that’s only been painted in your mind from Bible stories. Sometimes it’s easier to picture David’s palace than to actually see the stones that it was founded upon, your brain won’t let yourself believe it and you want to go back to that nice felt-board image you have left over from Sunday school. But here I am, and I have to come here ready to drop all my felt pieces and replace them with the real stones. It makes me feel very small, very much like I am grafted onto a deep root that I am very, very thankful to be getting nutrients from. It has opened my eyes to how real this thing I say I believe actually is, how it has grown from thousands and thousands of years and I am just a tiny, tiny bud off the newest branch of the huge, thick-trunked tree. With this hindsight, my individualistic, touchy—feely, Californianized faith seems very…silly. God is big. God is real. He is bedrock that I am founded upon with millions of others now and before me. Now I realize how we are all part of a much bigger story we only know the barest outlines of! With new humility comes new thankfulness, that we are part of this tree, this outline, this family, and we will be there to see it to completion! It all ties together, don’t you see? New creation doesn’t start when Jesus comes again, whenever that will be, it started when he came the first time and ever since then in every one of us. Shoot.
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