Gethsemane

I traveled from the Temple Wall in Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley and up to the Mount of Olives and into the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed before his betrayal and arrest.  It was a warm sunny day in April, a bird was softly singing in the garden, and I sat down on a small stone bench under an olive tree to meditate and pray. The pathways around me were all lined with beautiful spring flowers, and the garden was quiet and peaceful. It seemed that I was the only one in the garden when I bowed my head in prayer. I thanked my heavenly Father for such a wonderful opportunity as this. As I prayed in the peaceful April morning air of the Garden, I could feel the presence of Jesus with me, filling me with the warmth of his love, and my heart was overjoyed. Here I was in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus kneeled to pray to the Father, asking for “this cup to be taken from me—nevertheless, thy will not mine be done.” As I prayed, I thought of this and felt humbled by the opportunity to pray in the same garden as Jesus did over 2000 years ago. That day I walked where Jesus walked, and felt his presence near.

*excerpt taken from my new book, Israel: the Land of Milk and Honey

Flowers blooming in the Negev Desert

“And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites.”

Exodus 3:8 KJV