Jerusalem

Friday night at sundown begins Shabbot (Sabbath) and everything shuts down. Public transportation, most stores, and the dig. This is the weekend. I had Friday afternoon off and then on Saturday we traveled to Jerusalem. I couldn't wait to walk through the Old City, explore, and soak up the Biblical atmosphere.

 We drove into town and parked in East Jerusalem, where the Masters used to live. We first stopped at an Arab eatery to get the best chicken Schwarma. Probably not as sanitary as Naf Naf but multiple times better. We walked into the Old City through the Damascus Gate and immediately I was wonderfully overwhelmed by the sights, sounds, and smells. There was so much going on! Arab women selling grape leaves (see below) and other produce, men selling bakery goods, and trinkets galore!All the streets are lined with shops and stands and there is not much breathing room as you push through the walkways. Once in, you can't see in any direction as the stone streets wind through to the Christian Quarter and Jewish Quarters. After a bit of shopping, Jeffrey and I scaled the Western Wall (not literally...) and walked along the Ramparts Walk overlooking West Jerusalem and various other notable sights like King David's tomb, the room of the Last supper, Mt. Of Olives, Kidron Valley, Dome of the Rock, etc. We ended up at the Wailing Wall in the Jewish Quarter. Because it was Shabbot, all was very quiet.

We also walked most of the Via Dolorosa, a very symbolic walk as I reflected that my Savior actually carried His cross up each stone step, through the city, through those croded walkways with people laughing, spitting, taunting, and few sympathetic to His pain. He walked this, He sacrificed... for Me.

There are centuries of history embodied in the Old City, and it was so hard to take it all in a day. I wanted to take time and meditate on the Psalms while touring around King David's citadel (or the site of it, rather), read the Gospels while walking the Via Dolorosa, read about Jesus' Jerusalem ministry while overlooking the Kidron Valley and Bethany, and throughout all this just take in the fact that I am in the Promised Land... that from the beginning of time God had set aside this place, Israel, for His people and all the tension, action, fighting that has and continues to surround Jerusalem and beyond.

Room of Last Supper (one of two supposed sights)

Wailing Wall

panorama of Jerusalem