On my thirteenth trip to Israel, you’d think I would get my act together. Think again. I’ve only remembered to put on my sunscreen once. I have yet to remember to bring my walking stick with me out of the bus. I remembered my knee support once (today). Of course, I don’t forget to have my treats with me. I do forget to pass around the shareable ones though.
And then I guaranteed no rain, but it is in the forecast for tomorrow. If I say it will one way, it seems to happen another way. But such is the nature of experience. What we know may not always be the way it is.
As we stood after dark at the water’s edge of Galilee, I explained in my vast wisdom that the lights we see on the top of the western hills was the city of Safed. “The city on a hill can’t be hidden.” That’s the city, folks. Only today our guide says that Safed didn’t exist in Jesus’ day, He was referring to a city on a hill on the eastern side of the lake, Sussita (Hippos). Oh well. Wrong again.
I promised a crowd-free day today. I mean we are up in northern Galilee which is not the normal tourist haunt. Or at least it didn’t used to be. Because I was wrong. We were almost alone in Hazor, but the quiet of Galilee was destroyed as we moved on during the day. I’d never seen it so packed. Wrong again. We had to travel through Dan exactly opposite of how we usually visit the site. But we did get a few moments of quiet in front of a gate where Abraham walked.
Some things work out, others do not. But the biggest blessing of this trip is simple: the weather is unseasonably cool and the skies exceptionally haze-free. We stood on Mt. Carmel and saw the Mediterranean Sea and the hills of Jordan. That’s rare. Sometimes we hardly see the Jezreel Valley below us. But, of course, I had lowered expectations about the view before the trip. I was wrong again. Thankfully.
I may be right 80% of the time, but it is that 20% which sticks in my mind, and not just my mind either. But that’s where a little humility comes into play. No one is right 100% of the time, so I can’t expect to be either. I just need to be careful what I say and what I promise. Because the 90% right may be very, very generous of me. It is probably much lower. But we are having a wonderful time. Folks are patient with me, and we are meeting Jesus as we laugh our way through The Land.