We are living stones

This mornings devotional featured David’s words from Psalm 91 that tell us that God is our fortress and our strength. This seemed fitting to remember as we were going through many man-made structures in the City of David and Jerusalem, that while they once were magnificent structures they have now since crumbled to be the ruins that we are walking through today. This verse also reminds us that God is someone we can trust, which encouraged many of us as we went through Hezekiah’s Tunnel. In this tunnel we walked in the dark with flashlights being our only source of light, in spaces that were hardly any bigger than the width and height of our bodies, meaning we had to duck and squeeze between the rocky surfaces. For many of us this was out of our comfort zones and was quite scary, meaning we had to put full trust in God that he would be with us in our time of fear and uncertainty.

As we walked out of the tunnel we were able to sit next to the Pool of Siloam. Since Siloam means “sent” we took some time to meditate on the idea of us being sent out to follow the One who was sent before us and to be lights to the world that minister to others. Our next stop was to the Cardo or “Main Street” of Jerusalem that would’ve been where the marketplace and shops were located when Jesus was walking the streets of Jerusalem. From here we walked around to the Southern Steps, also known as the “teaching steps” as this would’ve been the location that Jesus often taught.

Here it was great to reflect and be reminded of who we are as our tour is starting to come to a close, that we are living stones built around Christ the Cornerstone sent to bring his name to others. Our final stop of the day was at the Holocaust museum which was full of some heavy history and emotion as we learned more about and remembered this horrible event. Overall it was another busy and wonderful day in Jerusalem!

Written by Ashley Boersma