This is a series of reflections following my trip to the Holy Lands this fall. What a profound and life-changing experience to walk where Jesus lived. Visiting Israel opened my eyes and refreshed my heart on so many levels – historically, politically, biblically and spiritually. The hotels we stayed in in Israel exposed me to some new practices. One had a Shabbat elevator - from sundown on Friday until the sun sets on Saturday, many observant Jews refrain from certain activities, including pushing elevator buttons. So in some buildings, elevators are programmed to stop automatically on every floor during the Sabbath. That way, observant Jews can hop right in and eventually, get where they are going. But the practice I saw the most and really liked was the mezuzahs affixed to every room’s doorway in each hotel. The mezuzah is mounted on doorways in Israel. I had heard of this practice, but never before had seen them on every entrance in the hotels. To be honest at first I … [Read more...]

This is a series of reflections following my trip to the Holy Lands this fall. What a profound and life-changing experience to walk where Jesus lived. Visiting Israel opened my eyes and refreshed my heart on so many levels – historically, politically, biblically and spiritually. Olive trees thrive in the Holy Lands. Every meal we ate offered at least one form of olives. Olive oil and olive wood gifts decorated the shelves of stores we visited. We passed miles of olive tree groves. Olive trees don’t grow in NW Ohio, so this is a tree I wasn’t familiar with. I read and heard about the Mount of Olives. We visited the peaceful Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus prayed among the olive trees. We watched workers harvesting the branches. But it was something our tour guide said that resonate within me and caused me to listen more closely to the lessons from the olive trees. George told us that olive trees could grow in any type of soil and had shallow roots. With this limited root … [Read more...]

This is a series of reflections following my trip to the Holy Lands this fall. What a profound and life-changing experience to walk where Jesus lived. Visiting Israel opened my eyes and refreshed my heart on so many levels – historically, politically, biblically and spiritually. Music marinated my soul on our trip to Israel. I didn’t realize how deeply the songs we heard and sang still rang within my heart until we were home. My memories anchored in Holy Lands harmonics in a land of not much harmony. "Music is well said to be the speech of angels; 
 in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man
is felt to be so divine. 
 It brings us near to the infinite."
 ~ Thomas Carlyle The Church of the Angels in Bethlehem’s Shepherds’ Field stands out first in my mind. This church is built in the shape of a shepherd’s tent in the place that could have been the site where the angels announced Jesus’ birth. Painted angels encircle the bright white ceiling, with words written in … [Read more...]