Friday

Wow, I didn't even know what day it was...on Wednesday I said "It's Monday right?" lol, yikes. :)

Friday we headed out to Jericho. We saw donkeys and camels just chilling on the hills along the way. :) We stopped in The Wilderness and it was so beautiful. At least to me it was beautiful in that moment in time. I know it would probably not be as beautiful to me if I were wandering around in it with little food and water though. It was what seemed an endless range of mountains that looked really dry, but apparently they are "green." As I looked down, I could barely see the crevices of the valley below , and we read part of Psalm 23 which reads:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

To actually see it come before my eyes was amazing. To me it had always been a metaphor about trials and hard times in my walk, but I have seen the sheperd and his flock here in The Wilderness, the "green" pastures to which King David is saying God is allowing him to lie in, and even the outline of the valley of the shadow of death here below me in the distance. The Wilderness is where many things happened including where Jesus went and where He was tempted. It has three ongoing characteristics: it is associated with having been a place of refuge for the nation of Israel, a place for retreat and solitude, and is the first line of defense for Jerusalem. It is so quiet out here, and it is no accident God had his people out here....it provided a dependency on God, intimacy in the relationship, and it didn't allow for any distractions at all...