Birthday Surprise!
Monday, January 11th, 2010
The picture is of the concrete fence that runs through Bethlehem (and many other places). It is hugely high and thick. A daily reminder of the heartbreaking pain of one people walling another people out of their hearts as neighbors.
For years I avoided going to Israel. I just thought I’d get depressed and cry the whole time. Here’s the reason: The best Heaven had to offer visited them and gave His best and look what a mess we have 2,000 years later. So for my 60th birthday this December I CHOSE to go to Israel. Bethlehem, to be specific.
I had an inkling it was a God idea, starting with the offer of a free trip to Ethiopia and Israel, but you never quite know how these things will turn out! So on my birthday I asked the Lord for a present that I knew was from Him. (kind of confirming once again that it was His idea that I was born etc.) How many times have I asked that?
On that day we were in both Bethlehem and Nazareth. The places where Jesus spent the early part of His life. The day before we had spent time in Hebron getting a good look at the plight of the Palestinian people (their situation in many ways compares to that of our First Nations People only worse)
So, what was the gift? It took me a couple of hours…days to understand what the gift was. Now exactly a month later, I’m pretty clear on what the gift was. Remember my first 2 sentences? I met a number of Palestinian people who are committed to peaceful resistance . They often risk their lives, or jail to speak out for the poor who are trapped with no way out. No jobs, no education for their children, no hope for the future. It was their courage that captured my heart.
I often just don’t “get” how long-term a thinker our God is. I get my shirt in a knot if some of my plans for God’s kingdom to come don’t pan out in a couple of years, or for sure a decade. But here I saw my Father still working on His plan to bring salvation to those He visited 2,000 years ago, and my friends there who are looking at a totally impossible situation with no hope of change who are willing to hope for a miracle of brotherly love, peace, and unity in their land and work for it with everything they have. My gift was encountering a powerful example of the kind of obedience I long for.