When this musing posts I will be in the air returning from nine days in Israel. I had been to Israel five years earlier, and this trip was completely different from the one before. When I came five years ago I dreamed of the day that I would get to go back. Never thought it would happen, but knew if the opportunity presented itself I would go. And I did. What I discovered however was that it wasn’t in the places this time that the impact of God was found. It was in the people.
From the plane ride over until the last moments with my bus driver at a bar at our hotel in Nazareth, where I was ordering a Coke, (can’t even count how many of those I consumed) while he smelled the coffee so he could stay awake to drive us on our next journey, it was all about the people.
For the last four days of our trip we were in Nazareth, Jesus’ home town. The place he was kicked out of two thousand years ago, and only a remnant of Him remains. Even now, all these years later, He is still about as popular. In an predominantly Arab area, Christians are many if you ask them, but much fewer if caused to carry the real call of Christ. But those who do carry it loud and strong and passionately. And we got to meet so many of them.
We met a believer who saw her father murder her sister after she attempted to marry a Muslim. We met a former professor of Aethism, who now teaches at Galilee Bible College. We met widows and the disabled, we met the mentally challenged and the desperately hungry. And what I came to a realization of is that with so few believers in this nation for their spirit to connect to, when a room of believers filled their small two or three room houses, the spirit inside of them was overwhelmed. Many when asked how we could pray for them were unable to wrap words around their overwhelmedness. But the common denominator was clear, Jesus was still in Nazareth in the hearts of those brave enough and bold enough to believe.
I celebrate my faith everyday. I come across people who love Jesus like me at the grocery store, in my boot camp class, I pass them in the car on the road and eat dinner in their home. My heart continually has another place to land. But in Nazareth…well, in Nazareth a like minded heart isn’t met just hanging out for the afternoon. Instead it has to seek and search and dig. But they are there. And they are desperate for more. And a man with a vision will see something happen. They may have made sure Jesus left Nazareth two thousand years ago, but I guarantee you, there are people there today that are doing everything in their power to get Him back…and I had the privilege of meeting them, eating with them, praying with them and hugging them. I saw the garden tomb, the mount of olives, gesthmene, and Peter’s village in Capernum. But I saw Jesus in the hearts of His people…the people in His hometown.
