The Sea, the Sea, the Sea of Galilee

This is an excerpt from my notes from yesterday:

As I write this, I am sitting on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, less than a mile away from the ancient town of Capernaum.

It's a peaceful Sabbath day morning, and after finished the book of Matthew, I try to imagine what life was like on these shores 2000 years ago. It's difficult to do though, even after seeing the supposed place where Jesus fed 5000 men and the synagogue where he taught. Maybe it's the trash littered across the beach or the hum of the occasional motorboat gliding across the silver water.

Even though it's hard for me to imagine life in the Bible times, it's very easy to feel a sort of spiritual assuredness. After reading about the life of Jesus since I was young and knowing so many of the different stories, it's quite personally satifsying to at least attempt to get a better understanding of the places where Jesus lived and taught. Reading through the Bible in the past, I rarely gave thought to the names of places--they all seemed so foreign and some of them are very difficult to pronounce. But after being in Galilee and mountain biking through some of these hills, I have much more appreciation for little things, like reading about how the crowds followed Jesus from one side of the lake to the other.

Yesterday and today were spent in Jerusalem, but I'll update you on those adventures in my next blog post! And pictures will be added when I get back to Cairo!!

Happy Sunday!