Negev

Tina Huber

Refleciton Day 8

Negev

January 12, 2012

I have a couple of regrets for my trip so far. First, I didn’t bring MY bible. I brought A bible. I downloaded a NIV version for my iPhone so I wouldn’t have as much to pack around during our hikes. I got lazy, and to be honest scared that I wouldn’t be able to handle the extra weight. I’m not sure that I would have used it for hiking, but I definetly would be using it during this reflection time. I miss my margin notes from my 20 years of bible study. Second, I wish I had completed my high school english requirements! For those of you who don’t know, I quit high school my senior year. I could list many reasons, english being one of them, but I justified a bunch of stuff in my head, blamed others for my failures, and just gave up. This is a regret I’ve had for the past 25 years. I have chose to learn from my mistakes instead of dwell on them. However, I do wish I had a larger vocabulary so I could more adequately explain the sites I see! I wish this more for your sake than for mine at this point. I feel like I just keep saying, “wow, that is breath taking!” (I feel like the author of the Twighlight Series. She seriously needed a thesaurus and so do I). So with that disclaimer lets go to our first stop of the day! We drove to the Tel Beer Sheba. I think I am starting to get a feel for how some of these cities might have looked. This tel was helpful in that it had a reconstruction line. You could see where the remains ended and where the excuvators building started. I was having a hard time at first picturing the homes and streets, but I am starting to get an eye for it. It’s a little like when you look at sonograms and have to find a baby in it. It sometimes takes a lot of imagination! I would summerize today as viewing some of the biblical characters in a different light. I say that because this first sight we discussed how Abram settled in this area with his caravan. He would have been the “Godfather” of this area along the spice trade route. A hospitable Godfather, but a man who would have had to approve all the comings and goings along this route. I never pictured him in this light before. My perspectives are being challenged a bit. I viewed Samson as this super strong hero, yet he was weak in so many areas. I viewed Abraham as a gentle father of faith character who obviously had many strengths to settle in a foriegn land.

When we got to our next stop I felt like I was one of the ancient towns people as we walked along the path that led us to the oldest cannanite city. The fortress stood on the hill to protect them. I could imagine the security that must have brought them. A false security. When we entered the fortress there was a temple in it and you could see the Holy of Holies area. I was excited to see that at first, but then you could see that this temple made God share his altar with another god. It was suggested that the people here believed that Yahwey was the God of gods. Their theology was one that God was awesome and better than the other gods, but they didn’t want to quite give up worshipping the other ones just in case. The people are making a move to monotheism from henotheism. They just can't let go of some old ways. It made me think how our society today promotes us as Christians to make God share His throne in our hearts. What do we try to cram in there and make God take a back seat? We kind of view that there is room for it all. I have my God section here, my worldly section here and there is room for both. I couldn’t help but think when I saw this double Holy of Holies that God wasn’t there at all. God doesn’t share His throne! He didn’t then and He doesn’t now! He gives us free will and if we choose to replace His throne with other fake gods or idols then He will leave. What a scary life application this was for me! This perspective needs to be in my mind daily. So my theme in this reflection is regret and perspective. I believe our perspective on situations can make our regrets a negative or positive experience in the long run. I started with the thoughts of regret today because I almost let my fear of failure cause another regret. We hiked the Nahal Zin to picture what the wilderness for forty years might have been like. I was super excited to go into this deep canyon and was warned that it is difficult at the end. I thought no problem! About half way through the hike I could see what looked like a ladder going straight up the wall of the canyon. I turned to someone and said, “do we have to go up THAT?!” I heard the reply, “yep, yep, yep.” echoing in the canyon in front of me. Here were my thoughts. Oh crud! I can’t do that. What if I start and can’t finish. I’ll get stuck and they’ll have to call in a chopper or something to come get me! That would be too embarrassing! I should turn back now. Olivia could tell I was nervous. And I think I voiced my lack of confidence. She turned to me and said, “You can do it mommy, come on!” She led the way and didn’t look back. I would regret this if I didn’t try. It was a steep climb up the side of this canyon wall. I took many breaks along the way but eventually I made it. I had tears in my eyes as I looked over the canyon below. I thanked God for the strength to get up and the safety of us all. The view was a great reward! No regrets today! We loaded the bus and it took us to the top of a mountain with the largest crater in the world. It is called Makhtesh Ramon or the Super Bowl! Yep, Olivia and I went to the super bowl and watched the sunset drape the hills below. We sat up there and had meditation time as we watched the sun set over the landscape. It was breath taking! I read Psalm 19 and pondered how Majestic God is to create such an amazing view!