In the footsteps of my Master.

If you expected a gripping day-by-day account of my two weeks in Israel, I’m sorry, but that would be a little too much for most readers. Instead, I’m trying to pick a few reoccurring thoughts or key moments to write about.

Visiting the Wailing Wall (Western Wall) stands out to me as a particularly moving experience. Previously, the Western Wall wasn’t even on my mental top ten because I had never learned why it was significant. I only knew that it was old. But then I learned it was so old that it had been part of the second temple. Waitttt a second. The wall had enclosed the temple mount where God Himself dwelt?!?

We were given about fifteen minutes, so I pulled out a mini notebook and sat down at the back of the women’s section near the wall. Instead of carefully constructing a beautiful prayer, I wrote what I was thinking, praising God for His love and faithfulness. I folded the note in my hand and slowly made my way through the crying, praying, and bowing figures towards the wall itself.

I thought maybe the Jews idolized the wall, longing and wailing for the days when God dwelt in his temple. It's true that they long for His presence, but the wall isn’t an idol or a good luck charm. It’s a piece of Jewish history and the closest they can be to God’s ancient dwelling. Millions go there to pray and cry out for their city and their people.

I came right up to the wall, reminding myself that God wouldn't hear me here any more than somewhere else in the world. But I was still awed as I stood beneath the huge wall that was built in the distant times I had been reading about all year. I tucked my note into a crack already crammed with various colored pieces of paper and squinted upwards at the enormous structure.

I prayed to God that no matter where I was, I would always pray with the same awe I felt at that moment. As a dear friend pointed out later, the same incredible power that dwelt on the temple mount now lives in us. This is the same God who miraculously took the Israelites out of Egypt, the same One who appeared in a cloud and in fire, the same One who made the walls of Jericho suddenly fall, and the same One whose presence thousands of years ago makes the temple mount remain the most holy place in the world.
He lives in me. And He loves me.

Someday you should go to Jerusalem and see the temple mount. Imagine standing just a little ways from the exact place where an enormous temple once stood. You can almost see the people reverently coming up the temple steps. The Bible is transformed into living color.


The Pools of Bethesda

Hezekiah's Tunnel

The Pools of Siloam

The Lower Pool (it's only partially excavated)

The Mount of Olives

The Garden of Gethsemane

The Southern Steps of the temple...

...it's all there!

My flip-flops are worn through and my feet
are still covered with the dust of my Master's
footsteps. It's been an amazing journey.





The only problem is...at 19, I feel like there’s nothing in the world left to see!!! :)