Day 6
May 30, Thursday
Well done good and faithful servant…even
with this small bit.
Amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…he didn’t deserve it but
God gave it; he didn’t have the chance to do it…so I did it in his place.
When it came
time to be baptised in the Jordan, I said yes to the opportunity but then I thought
no, after all I had already been baptised, so I said no; until God whispered in
my ear “Do it for John” and I was reminded of John in his last days, how he
reconciled with God and how I wished I could have been baptised in his place during a
church service just a few weeks after he died.
This day,
God reminded me of that day and I said yes; baptism, in the holiest place to do
it... the Jordan River. This day, I was
baptised, a dedication to God symbolising baptism for John.
So, I said
yes, and I am sure I saw the heavens open up; I heard the words well done good and faithful servant, with
you I am well pleased… and then I swam there, in that amazing river, where
Jesus was baptised by John; amazing grace, how sweet the sound…grace from God, love
from me.
From this
holy place we head out towards the desert, along the highway following the
river past groves of mango trees and the rolling hills of the Jordan valley, we
are following the route of the Patriarchs, past Samaria to the edges of the
Judean desert; passing fields of sunflowers, palm trees and freshly plowed
dirt, fertile and red. We pass by the area patrolled by the Israeli army day and night and on further still into
the Judean desert, we look up to the mountain where Jesus was tempted for forty days and
then further, into desolation, to the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea
heading on to the Qumran.
Qumran, the
ruins of the Essenes, a Jewish sect, that believed their faith had been
corrupted, they come to this place and become obsessed with building pools, spiritual washing
and the writing of God’s word. It is believed that John the Baptist spent time
here with these people, being influenced by their washing and their teaching;
to this day seminaries teach the ways of the Essenes. It is here in the Qumran where a Bedouin shepherd
boy discovers the Dead Sea scrolls, contained in jars in the depths of a cave,
the writings of the Essenes, the oldest scriptures of the Bible ever found…in a
cave, in the mountains of the desert, high above the Dead Sea.
Back on the
bus we drive on through the mountains of chiseled rock, surely chiseled by the
hand of God, His handiwork; bars of hard, hard, desert sand, cut and wedged and
dry and hot; so hot that the air is hazy, the heat rising up and filling the
air itself. Below you can see the canal, the waterway ribboning its way to the aquamarine blue of the Dead Sea; beautiful, sparkling, and trimmed in white…salt.
Overlooking
the Dead Sea is the Hotel where we stay for this night…the night of the hottest
day! We trek down to the sea and float
there in the mineral water basking in the joy of it, feeling the weight of it
and taking in the wonder of it; water so heavy we float away as if in a lounge
chair floating on air.
Taking the
shuttle back, we make our way to the beautiful pool of our hotel and we find
ourselves swimming and chatting about the wonders of our day, sights and ideas shared,
discussion and thoughts talked out amongst us, friends coming together by the
way of this trip, a shared faith…and in this water; baptised in friendship.
I love that.
