Last week I moved to Israel.
My mailing address says 'in the hills of Judea'
where most countries would write a city name.
Before I moved here I had this fantastic daydream
of what this place would be like. After all, this is The Promised Land - The land
to which God called Abraham to make for Himself a nation of priests. The
country through which Holy God became accessible to sinful man. The place where
Jesus sojourned for 33 years in order to make a way for the redemption of all
man kind. I supposed I thought that meant God be closer
here than other places.
But this is just a place.
A couple days ago I drove past the town where the
Ark of the Covenant sat for a few decades on my way to the mall to buy plug
adapters and toothpaste. Yesterday I went to Jerusalem to get health insurance
and ink cartridges. In a couple days I will drive right past the valley where
God made the sun stand still in Joshua 10 on my way to pick up students at the
airport in Tel Aviv.
Life here is perfectly ordinary, and in these short
7 days God has not seemed extraordinarily closer. He as been much the same as ever. And while
all this is rather the opposite of what I thought I'd be saying after a week in Israel, I find myself still
more in awe of the Savior than I expected to be.
Before I knew I was coming here, I watched from a
thousand miles away as some of my dearest friends experienced the Holy Land
first hand. At the time I almost felt like God was somehow lesser in my life
because I had never been to the land of my faith's foundation. I have never
found so much comfort in the knowledge that I was wrong.
He's still the same. The God of Israel who met me
in America has lived in me through life in Brasil, and Hungary, and India, and
now Israel has never once changed! Though my understanding of Him is ever
growing, no matter where I've roamed He's always been the same. I find such comfort in Him - my firm foundation - who does not change like shifting
shadows.
Thankful seems like a small word to express the joy
I feel at the knowledge that I may call this unshakeable God of Israel Abba. I am beyond amazed to think that all of this was given to me because of
a Man who died an unspeakable death on a cross and rose again just 10 miles away from where I sit.
I live in Israel. My mind still doesn't quite
comprehend it. I can't call it luck, because I don't believe in that. I
feel irrationally blessed to have been given this season of life to learn and
grow in the land of my Savior.
!הֹדוּ לַיהוָה כִּי־טוֹב
