Home from Eilat

Well…we got back from spending the weekend at Eilat last night. We spent our days laying by the Red Sea and soaking up as much reading as sun. Coming home last night was like coming home from a vacation when you are dredging the work that has to be done and preparations for a new week. I decided I would not be very productive out of sheer sun induced exhaustion, so I cracked open a book and called it a night. Coming home we also got news that we have no hot water in the bathroom. Showers are now less than fun. This of course complements the rats we found in our personal toiletry drawers last week. Add of all these scenarios together and you have me wishing I were returning home to Seattle last night instead of our enchanting Jerusalem. I’m beginning to recognize that the comforts of home are so very comfortable. I was reminded as I was attempting to shave in a cold shower that people do so everyday. A rat in the bathroom is really nothing in comparison to some of the horrors people all over the world face everyday. I should be thankful to have running water, nice shampoo, and a weeks worth of clothes sitting in my locker upstairs. Still I find myself spoiled by the treasured comforts of living far more than comfortably in America. Sitting in a coffee shop in Jerusalem trying to get some Hebrew homework done, Joni Mitchell has been playing overhead and I’m curiously shocked that she’s even playing, and even more that people know the words to sing along. It’s a little piece of home even though home feels far away today. I am so enthralled by the lessons learned here and I’m confident I will not even know how much I have taken in until I am acclimating to life back in the US. After reading the news about people in Gaza being attacked, their electricity limited, and also about the innocent Israeli’s suffering the attacks of the Palestinians in Gaza, I am reminded that none of us are really ever home. Home being a place of comfort, far from any fear, a place of rest. I’m convinced our home isn’t anywhere but in the grasp of His grace. The ultimate home not becoming a reality until we’re there with Him in the truest Holy city.

More on Eilat to come….