THE TRIP TO ISRAEL (keeping the appointment)

Do two walk together, unless they have made an appointment? (Amos 3:3).

For Helen and me, the trip to Israel began much earlier than the 12th of March, we had many chores to do and responsibilities to make arrangements for before we could leave.  We left home on the evening of Tuesday, the 11th, because the flight out of Omaha was at 6 in the morning.  We checked into the motel, but did not sleep well due to the anxiety of checking in on time and of the flying itself (The missing 777 out of Malaysia was a big news item).

The alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. and we were out by 4:15.  We went through the checking-in process only to find out that, because of bad weather in Chicago, the flight would be delayed 2 hours.  Still we made the flight to Chicago in time to catch the flight to New York.  Even though we were late to New York, we were able to board El Al to Tel Aviv on time.

The 777 was packed with Jewish people going to Israel to celebrate the feast of Purim.  Seated next to me was a Jewish man who struck up a conversation with me.  By this time of the day I just wanted to relax my brain, but he didn't let me.  So we talked of our families, our occupations, and even politics (I asked him why Jewish people support Obama even though he is anti Israel.)  But then we got to religion.  For me, my mind being what it was, it was like bringing a butter knife to a sword fight.  My seat partner had a law degree from Georgetown University, but was a financial planner.  Who am I, but a lowly Iowa farmer.  So he tried to impress on me the superiority of Judaism over Christianity by saying, "A whole nation witnessed the giving of the law and they passed it on to their children.  In Christianity only a few people witnessed the resurrection, and who knows if they saw anything or not?"

I wished my reply would have included this, but it did not, "Your law, witnessed by a whole nation, says a fact is established by 2 or 3 credible witnesses, and the credibility of those witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ is well established."  What I did say to him was still pretty good.  "Yes, a whole nation did witness the giving of the law, and they all died in the wilderness because they did not believe God."  That pretty much ended our discussion.  He had a lavatory stop to make and prepare for prayers at 6 a.m. on the 13th, which it was because of time-zone loss.  I'm not sure why God made the appointment for us to sit together.  My argument was not impressive, but perhaps God thought he needed to hear it.

We arrived at Ben Gurion airport at 4:30 p.m. and we immediately started our tour at old Jaffa.  (Continued tomorrow).

Our Father's Love,
Tom