REFLECTIONS

On Tour

We have been blessed to tour America and witness its beauty. We’ve seen Colorado in its coat of winter white and its cool streams running down mountainsides in summertime. The pure white sands of Carmel’s beaches basking in the foreground of deep blue Pacific waters has taken our breath. We have walked the pristine fairways that blanket Augusta National’s rolling hills. We stood in awe of towering Magnolias abloom there and the ornaments of Azalais splashed about the perimeter.

As tourists, we have visited London, Scotland, and driven the emerald country sides of Ireland. Our feet touched the ground of Paris, though only for a night, but the Eiffel Tower, the river Seine and other sights and sounds there did not go unnoticed. And we toured the Holy Land. Jesus was once a tourist there.

We know his earthly life began in Bethlehem, a scant few miles to Jerusalem’s south. And we know that most of his growing up years were in a village called Nazareth. Then at age 30, Jesus went on tour.

He went to Cana where he turned water into wine at a wedding there. He went to a town called Nain to raise a widow’s son from the dead. He traveled toward Galilee to the village of Magdala where he met a woman named Mary. He visited Bethsaida to heal the sick and lame.

Jesus established his home in Capernaum after healing Peter’s mother-in-law there; and nearby, he preached his famous sermon on the Mount of Beatitudes. He sailed across the Sea of Galilee to a territory on the other side named Decapolis. He chased demons from a man into a herd of pigs that ran themselves crazily into the sea’s abyss.

He led his disciples north to Caesarea Philippi to witness cults in worship of other gods. His travels took him to Tyre on the Mediterranean coast, and through Sidon northwest of Sychar in Samaria. In Sychar, the place of Jacob’s well, he talked to a woman fetching water in the middle of the day.

Jesus met Satan on the Mount of Temptation, just outside of Jericho. And he passed through Jericho when on his way to Bethany to meet Mary and Martha and to call Lazarus from the grave. Then in his final days he climbed the Mount of Olives and prayed in the nearby Garden of Gethsemane before his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

God sent Jesus on tour through a dry and dusty land. He taught God’s truth, and shared his love. And all along the way, Jesus glorified God’s holy name. Now it’s our turn. God has sent you and me on tour through this world. It’s a beautiful place for us to enjoy. But along our tour, may all we do glorify God’s holy name just as Jesus did.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org.

Click here for Printer Friendly Version