Israel is tiny. The whole country would fit inside Lake Michigan. It is younger than I am. Yes, I was seven years old when Israel became a nation. Yet this tiny country is the continual focus of world affairs.

The history of the land and the Jewish people goes back four thousand years. I have been reading about it in the Bible since I was a small child, and hearing about it in the news for almost as long. Although I always found the land fascinating, I never expected to set foot on it personally until my niece Nancy Knox Long invited me to join a group she was going with from Orlando, Florida, led by scientist Grady McMurtry.

As we visited various sites, we learned about their significance from a topographical, geological, archaeological, historical, and Biblical perspective. In future posts I will share some of what I learned. At times we walked where Jesus once walked, and saw places where He visited. We saw the tomb where He was buried and from which he arose.

One of the most significant comments we heard, which summarized our entire experience, was spoken by our tour guide at the tomb. “This is a very important place. A very important event took place here. But this is only rock. We are not here to worship and glorify rock. We worship and glorify Jesus Christ.”