Walking Bethlehem.

            Today, while we were visiting Bethlehem, we spent some time walking through the city streets.  It was amazing how the differences jumped out.  The market street was filled with the people of the city, buying fresh fruits and spices for their meals.  Shop owners called out from their stores inviting passersby to come into their shops for tea or coffee.  They then showed off their goods while the strongly sweet Turkish coffee enlivened both the tongue and the mind.  During the day, the cry of the muezzin rang out from the minarets across the city, calling faithful Muslims to prayer.  Everything seen, heard, tasted, and smelled exclaimed that you were in a totally different place than the one previously known.

            Differences make things stand out.  Our lives often seem to be a repetition of the same events.  Day in and day out we go to work or school, run errands, and do the same things.  Many times these are good things that we need to do, such as the work we are called to perform or the things we need to accomplish to live a healthy life.  However, if we are not careful, the busyness can consume all our time and leave us wondering if we weren’t meant for something more.  God is in the daily tasks we do, but it can be hard to see Him if we live our lives just checking off boxes on our to-do lists.  The difference of being a pilgrim, either in the Holy Land or at home in our daily lives, is that we live our life for something more than just accomplishing our daily tasks.  A pilgrim lives life looking for God in everything they see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and do.  When we live our lives that way, then we will notice that everything is different through God’s amazing grace.