by Jesse Burns
"Pictures from the mountain cannot even flirt with capturing and displaying the beauty that this land holds."
6 A.M. came very early after a long day of travel, but it did not disappoint because when we woke up, my roommate (Adam Morris) and I stepped onto the porch to see the sunrise over the Sea of Galilee. It was breathtaking (and blinding). The orange hue and reflection across such an important body of water is amazing to see in person. The beauty is indescribable and hard to take in all at once. We ate breakfast, loaded onto the bus, and drove through the Hula Valley. As we rode, we passed several mountains (the mountains are probably better described as very large rolling hills, but from my East Texas perspective let’s go with mountains).
We picked up Eitan, our tour guide, on the bus to Mount Hermon. He gave us five elements to take in and notice on the trip that separates Israel from all other places people travel. The five elements are location, history, religion, modern day Israel, and Saturday (the celebration of Shabbat).
As we made our way up Mount Hermon the trees and grass changed from a light green to a dark beautiful green. Once at the top (7600 feet) we were able to look into Golan Heights and see a glimpse of what Abram would have seen when he was called by God in Genesis 12. Pictures from the mountain cannot even flirt with capturing and displaying the beauty that this land holds.
After lunch, our next stop was Banias, a stream-filled land where we not only talked about the historical context of Greeks temples, but also learned about Jesus taking his disciples there (Matthew 16).
We drove for 3 minutes up the road to Tel Dan for our last stop of the day. Tel Dan is named after the tribe of Dan and has the biggest spring in the Middle East. We saw 3500 year old walls and a 3500 year old judges seat before ending the day with seeing a 4000 year old gate!
