Experiences and Encounters

            As one year draws to a close and another begins, it is natural to start wondering how much has happened in the last year and how we are different because of it.  The last year has impacted each of us in large and small ways.  The people we have encountered have come into our lives and changed us.  The places we have visited have altered our understanding and the way in which view the world, as well as the way we live in it.

            This journey through the Holy Land is a great blessing that has changed us and continues to do so.  We encounter the people who live here and because of it we know both them and ourselves better.  As we travel to the holy places, we journey not only to them, but also travel within ourselves to know God and ourselves in relation to Him in a deeper way.  Day after day, each of us confronts ourselves anew in relation to the truth that God reveals to us in His Son, Jesus.

This is true not only for pilgrims far from home, but for all Christian pilgrims as we travel through this world in hope of the world to come.  All of our daily activities and encounters are tools which God uses to mold and shape the way that we understand Him and ourselves.  As God refines and polishes the lenses of our souls through our experiences and encounters, we continue to see ourselves better.  Upon seeing ourselves better we come to see and know ourselves more and more as God sees us, as God knows us, as God loves us.  By knowing God and ourselves better, we can share more deeply in God’s love.  Then we can come to love God and even love ourselves as God does.