Home Sweet Home

I'm back home and Indy has never looked so green or my home more welcoming. The beauty almost stuns me.

The Holy Land, as you may have noticed by the pictures, is not a place where external aesthetics are highly valued. The land is brown and most homes are unpainted apartments in what look to be the bad part of town. Still, whenever we went behind the walls, we found hidden pockets of beauty. The Old City looks to be a bustle of tourists and hawkers in dingy streets, but then we go into Christ Church and find an oasis of beauty in the inner court. We view what some refer to as the ghetto of Bethlehem from afar and wonder what good could come from there; but then we travel into the town and find one of the most stunning hotels ever. We hear from media how scary the radical Islamics are, or from our pastors how lost the Jews are—and then we eat a meal with the people of the Holy Land and see how precious they are.

When God looks down from his throne, he sees the beauty, hidden though it may be. He looks at each individual and each people group and he loves them. He loves them so much he sent his Son to die for them so that they might see the beauty themselves.