Gezer

Okay. Picture this. You have arrived disheveled and sleep deprived but still smiling and ready for the adventure.

There you are sitting in an out of the way place in the country. You walk down a country dirt road, along a field of olive trees and bushwack up a hill. You begin picking your way through stones then scramble up and over a the crumbling remains of a stone wall and realize you are there. Where? You're not sure yet but you can see patterns of what must have been walls for rooms at one time.

You find a place on the stones that radiate heat from the midday sun, and you learn you are sitting at a city that existed at the time of King Solomon. In fact it's almost certain that annually he sat at the city gates and served as judge to settle the controversies of the community. Over the centuries thirteen other civilizations built their communities on the ruins of each former community stacking up over the centuries. In effect you are sitting thirteen civilizations down with still more below.

This site lies within an area referred to as Shephelah where the Israelite territory bordered the Philistine territory. The Via Maris ran by Gezer. There was much coming and going of Gentiles nearby. Just down the hill a bit are a few huge, high narrow stones called standing stones. A question to ask your friend when she returns from this Israel pilgrimage is this, "what are you chosen for?" A second question is, "What will people remember God did when seeing your 'standing stone'?"

For me, while sitting on those stones in the ruins of what once was a bustling community, time unfolded and expanded and I was diminished, shrunk, I am a speck of dust in the expanse of time. Yet God has His eye of love and delight on me. On you. We are nothing. We are of inestimable value. Both at the same time. Its mind bending.

From one speck of treasured dust to another – shalom!

Written by Christine