Holy Land ... Back home in Indiana

On that day I intend to destroy all the nations who come against Jerusalem,

but I will pour out a spirit of grace and mercy on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
They will look to me concerning the one whom they pierced;they will mourn over him like the mourning for an only child.

They will mourn bitterly over him like the bitter mourning over the death of an oldest child.
On that day, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the Megiddo Valley.

Zechariah 12:9-11 CEB

The pages of the Bible come alive in a new way as I read them.  I see the places in my mind as the words jump off the pages. And yet I struggle to tell you how I have changed ...

Phillip Brooks, the author of the Carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, visited the Holy Lands in 1865. During his visit he rode through the shepherd fields outside of Bethlehem.  It would take him another three years before he was able to pen the words to the song. I find comfort in that.

I am hopeful that it won't take me three years to pen all my thoughts, but it may take that much time for me to write the one's that will be most remembered. Until then one last impression:

I snapped this photo of Sherry and I each touching one of the stones from the wall of Jerusalem that dates to the time of Jesus.  How many other hands have touched these stones over the centuries?  We both wait in anticipation of being there again to walk in the land of the Bible.  Until that day, we treasure this photo and the memories it brings to mind.