With no lack of trepidation, I await our planned pilgrimage through the great nation God promised to Abraham. It is the destination of Moses and the Israelites that they called the land of milk and honey; and it is the land where Jesus walked when He graced our world so long ago. There is such political unrest in the land we call Holy that it seems only natural to have safety concerns about traveling there. But political unrest is almost synonymous with the nation Israel. Turmoil has existed there through all of its history. So any travels through the Holy Land without the threat of danger would not be an accurate depiction of life there. And a depiction of life in the place where Jesus walked is, after all, the very reason for Christians to go there.

Without being there to see it all first hand, I can only imagine what it would be like to sleep in the town where Jesus came alongside his earthly father to serve as a carpenters’ helper. I can only imagine the walk along the shores of the Sea of Galilee where he called Peter, James, and John to follow him; or to splash through the rough waves of the sea that Jesus calmed, and upon the very waters where Jesus walked.

But the pilgrimage will supplant my imagination when we walk the fields where the shepherds saw the star, stand by the river in which Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and ascend the mount that signifies his most recognizable sermon. We will walk the Emmaus road where Jesus walked unrecognized with two believers, and I am sure we will feel his presence as never before. And that feeling alone will make any trials of the pilgrimage all worthwhile.

Yet we know that Jesus is with us right where we are. He told us that He will be with us always, so we need not leave the comforts and security of home and venture into the uncertainties of a land in the midst of political unrest to find his presence. But though we know He is with us, when we walk where Jesus walked, we will find ourselves drawn closer to him.

And the peace from the closeness will overcome all trepidation.