FORGIVENESS AT A PLACE OF WAR.

Day 10 – Tuesday, March 9 “Going West”

CINDY
Megiddo, Caesarea Maritima.

Today I woke up feeling sick.. very nauseated. Took some medication and was all set to go. I was sad to leave our lil’ village hotel. It was beautiful. We were right on the sea of Galilee. Each one of us had our own lil’ homes complete with a kitchen, living room, TV, bedroom, a green grassy backyard that was the actual shore of the sea of galillee, and a bbq grill (Dan, the bbq grill comment is for you! Lol). Sigh. I was so happy to be able to stay there for two nights. It was beautiful to watch the sun set on the opposite end under the hilly ridge and watch the lights come on one by one in the city of Tiberias.. the lights sparkled in the evening sky and reflected on the dark sea. Sigh.. it was great while it lasted.

We woke up early and went on to Megiddo.. you know that infamous place where for the end times. And guess what?! yup, I had that as my devotional site. I read so much on Megiddo and time and time again all that was talked about was the end times. I just didn’t want to go into all that war and blood. I mean so much death has already happened in that place! I wanted to see if there was something more about that place.. there had to be…I asked God and I all of the sudden I got an amazing illustration. Here’s a snippet of my devotional:

“Time and time again, people have come and go, including kings, reigns, and even horses! Actually this place is a “mountain” or a tel because of the very fact that Megiddo has been rebuilt so many times. A city has been destroyed and others come and rebuild over it, leaving layers and layers beneath the surface. Not only did the layers just keep piling on top of each other but the walls also were made bigger and thicker during the times Megiddo has been rebuilt. So is the same with our hearts.

Our hearts can easily look like Megiddo. People come and go, take up residence in our hearts or come and destroy it, we see a lot of bloodshed in one sense or another, and what we do to cope is just build upon it. However, like the layers of past cities have remained so have the layers of hurt remain in our hearts. They do not go away. What we do is just continue to build and build upon them. We even make the walls thicker and taller because we want to protect our hearts from future invasions or in other words, hurts. Here in Megiddo each layer is just on top of the others until it is just a mass of heaping ruins that tell of the past. So it is with our hearts. Our hearts become a mass of heaping ruins that tell of the past, our past hurts. What we don’t realize is that as we build these “defense mechanisms” to ward ourselves from others, we end up blocking ourselves off from God. These walls are there and don’t allow God to get to the very core of our hearts.

So what can we do about it? We begin a process of an archaeological dig of our hearts. There is a process that begins with the first layer-forgiveness…” ☺

How cool is that?! I loved that right there in the midst of a mountain and near the jezreel valley where battles have taken place, where blood has been spilled and where it might continue to be spilled.. where man has fought against man.. God led us in a moment of forgiving.. others and ourselves.. of reflecting on not taking revenge but letting go… of not becoming hard ground and an artificial mound like Megiddo but becoming a soft fertile fruitful plain like the Jezreel Valley… I like Jesus☺

One thing that moved me today: In Megiddo, as I was bringing out the MASSIVE bible Jason let me borrow for the devotional and struggling to also hold my paper, Hal came running up to me. Without any words, he put his strong hands under the Bible and held my paper down from the fighting breeze. I was so deeply moved. Here is this man.. 73 years old.. I didn’t ask him a thing.. I was just going to hold my paper and Bible.. with a bit of struggle but that never stopped me.. and he just saw my need and came without any words to offer himself for my help. The whole time I gave my devotional he was right there next to me as my podium. Lol. He would even flip the page for me.. and when I would forget where I was he just mumbled quietly where I had left off. Lol. The whole time, I just kept hearing in my heart “I’m here for you.” If it wasn’t that I was speaking and giving the devotional I would have just burst out in tears. That was Jesus the whole time. With me, helping me, supporting me, and just never leaving me alone.. He is there to help even when I don’t ask.. He’s there for encouragement and just to love me with himself.. tears are falling down my face even as I write this right now.. Jesus and his manifest love never fails to woo and overwhelm my lil’ heart.

We also went to Caesarea Maritima. It’s a port city. It’s a must see!! Blue blue waters! And restaurants with their white cushion seats and white umbrellas facing the water under the clear blue sky (my pics don't do the place justice :(.... they even had sushi there! :) Ha! Sooo beautiful! It’s a great place for lunch.. I’m beginning to realize how romantic of a place Israel is… ha!

FIRST AID?!!!