From Dead Sea to Galilee

At the beginning of the day, we walked no more than 50 yards from the entrance of the hotel we had stayed at the night prior for our morning devotional. Scott talked about three bodies of water in Israel with symbolic significance to the message he was about to tell us - one was a spring that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me, the next was the Dead Sea and the last the Sea of Galilee. The spring had long dried up due to continually spewing out it’s water without being replenished. The Dead Sea only takes in water from the Jordan River without sending it anywhere else and is beauty to look upon, but it’s waters are poisonous and can bear no life. The Galilee, however, practices both the art of giving and the art of taking, and with that comes the ability to provide life to species of fish and plants found nowhere else in the world. Each body of water is representative of different lifestyles that can be led. One can give, give, and give but then they end up dry themselves. One can take, take, take and be a sight to behold yet still have no fruit in their life. Though, if one finds the balance of giving and taking, life will be abundant and full of possibilities. This made me think about where I am in my life and walk and ways that I could become more like the Galilee. With this in mind, I think that there is no coincidence that the Sea of Galilee is where eighty percent of Jesus’ teaching took place.

We then began the meat of our day at Qumran, a ruin of an ancient Jewish community of sorts where the residents lived for the purpose of transcribing God’s word. These people, known as the Sons of Light, were obedient like no other, obedience being the love language of God. These people were passionate about wanting God’s presence on their hearts and fervently desired purity and forgiveness. The rituals they went through to achieve this in their minds were a bit extra if I do say so myself but their intense love of God was clear because of it. As we hiked up the Wadi that Qumran sits at the base of, the group had some difficulty due to the angle of ascension and slippery rocks, but it was fun as we were able to crawl through an ancient aqueduct if we chose and eventually made it to a clearing where we could sit and talk. There Scott requested that we ponder whether we have read God’s word as intensely as we hiked just then, have we read the text with a true desire in our heart to live it out or just thought about how it applied to our lives. Where are we intense? Where am I fierce like a lion? After that a majority of us hiked to the top of the ridge and were able to add to a collection of stones with the names of those we hope to be able to journey to that place themselves one day, and I would say it was a touching and heartfelt moment for all who experienced it.

We then ventured to the Jordan River to a spot that could potentially be where John the Baptist baptized Jesus and ate falafel for lunch. We didn’t stay there long but it was interesting to ponder that that was a place that could have insane significance. After, we drove for a while and came upon the shores of the Sea of Galilee at last. We took a boat ride across and discussed how Jesus’ encounter with the disciples on the sea was important, and I found my mind wandering to the fact that this was exactly, not possibly around the area or any of that, the place where Jesus had walked. The idea of it all was an awesome thought to have as I processed all that was happening. I thought there was some nice symbolism that we started the day at the Dead Sea, devoid of live, and ending at Sea of Galilee, abundant in life.

Robert Quirk