It was New Years night, and I found myself in the land of Israel, hosted in a Bedouin tent with countless cups of coffee and sweetened tea, among my close friends and a couple of family members, on my last school trip. We were touring the Holy Land, naturally, because we are a Bible collage. But what we experienced was far from natural, and took us all by surprise. We experienced the supernatural.
This night was one of those nights.
Jew and Gentiles, from all across the great sea
Gathered in a desert, intermingled
Under Bedouin hospitality
Cultures collided, in the same tune and key.
Voices around the campfire
We sang in perfect harmony.
Hour after hour, we sang songs old and new.
Ancient Hebrew, Taylor Swift,
Jason Maraz, too.
And we sang our songs of worship, our praises filled the air.
The atmosphere changed - you could feel it
God's presence was there.
Oh how He loves us...oh
How He loves us
How He loves us oh
A God of love? They didn't know Him
For His greatest act of love
Was never shown to them
When all was done, our friends and fire dissolved
But there were some that lingered
I know they wanted resolve
Our light lit that dessert dark, and everyone could see
But only the curious and courageous sought answers
And one sought it from me...
Yes it's true, I got to share my Jesus with an Orthodox Jew
She saw something in me - in all of us
And she had to have it, too.
She asked me, why do you sing about God's love? I've never heard that before...
The God I know is angry, condescending
But can you tell me more?
And that's when I got to share, my encounter with His love.
Here eyes fixed on mine
She couldn't get enough.
I explained that God is angry, so angry at sin.
That's why He sent His only Son
To pardon us through Him.
She asked me how this worked, I felt God take over my description
I used the Torah, the Old Testament
And Abraham as explanation
God stopped Abraham, from sacrificing his son!
Because God had a better way
And it would include salvation for everyone
But Jesus was a Jew
And He came, He's here
Ariana, He's coming for you.
This is how Christ changed me, all it takes is to believe
And after many wow's
She finally hugged and thanked me
Our guide, Richard, talked with us about the journey - his journey, our journey, and their journey of finding Jesus. Everyone is on a journey, and not one journey looks the same. Richard encouraged us to look at people through this filter - that we are all in different places, but we're all on the same search for our Savior.
I don't know where she was on her journey, but I did know that now I was a part of it. And now I intercede for her, for Ariana, for her journey to continue and that she would meet Jesus for herself.
Yes, this night was one of those nights. Doubters became believers, and blind eyes became see-ers.
"How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14-15 NIV)
-BJM
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