A Room with a View!

After lunch we drove up the Roman road (a road went down from Jerusalem to Jericho... read Luke 10:25-37) to see the mountain where Jesus was tempted, as traditionally understood. It's in a location known as the Wadi Kelt (wadi means valley in Arabic). The top of the mountain looks down on St. George's Monastery, a desert place which once held 2 thousand monks and today has five. This number includes the monk who has been living in a cave above the monastery in isolation for many years. Apparently, his brothers have a pulley system to get him a little bread, water and some herbs each day.

If you stand on the top of the mountain and look to the left you will see the top of Mount Zion Jerusalem out in the distance. I sat on the top of the mountain for some time thinking about the distance and terrain and what that journey would have been like some 2,000 years ago for Jesus. I thought about the temptations in my life that I have faced, and others. And I am at a loss for words about that moment... it was a truly thin place.

Oh yea, and this is where Jay and I rode a camel. Here we are with the camel and the Bedouin who offered us a ride.