Dheera Bhowmick recounts her enlightening trip to Israel
The world comes to life
And everything is bright
From beginning to end
When you have a friend
When you open your heart
And believe in the gift of a friend.
~ Demi Lovato song
FRIENDS ARE the best assets in one’s life. With them, the right kind, there is shelter, sharing, caring, selfless giving, love, joyous laughter and unburdening the heart. There are times when God gauges the sincerity of the bond and decides to bless close- bosomed friends with beautiful gifts – gifts, precious and rare.
A trip to the world’s most venerated land came as such a gift. Every happening in this world is a part of almighty’s grandiose plan. This must have been one — a tour of the Holy Land where the wind breathes His name.
On a bright sunny morning in autumn, two friends in the company of 44 devout souls (all hearts bound in the thoughts of the divine) set out on a journey of the Holy Land — the land where the Lord was born, the land which felt His footsteps and the land where the events of His life unfolded.
The way was long but not tiresome because a heart in search of the divine loses count of hours they say. There was excitement and joy and eager anticipation in every heart, smile on every face.
An Air Arabia flight took us from Delhi to Sharjah and from Sharjah to Amman. We then travelled by land and crossed over from Jordan to Israel. The sudden change in landscape right after crossing the beautiful Jordan River (which is the demarcation line between Jordan and Israel), the sudden spurt in green, the multi-hued flowers, the soft gentle breeze, the quiet and peace of the setting sun told us that we were in God’s land. That the land was special, one could easily tell even without taking note of its geographical boundary. One could just close one’s eyes and feel the blessings of the blessed land. We knew we would breathe and live beauty and holiness in the next five days of our stay here.
Mount Tabor the Holy Mountain the Mount of Transformation was the first site that we visited. Located nine km east of Nazareth the hill offers a picturesque, almost unreal view of the Jezreel valley, the hills around it including Givat Hamoreh and to the north Mount Hermon as written in the Psalms: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name. We prayed together and wept overwhelmed.
The Sea of Galilee held a major attraction for all of us and our hotel was located just by its side. In fact the grand hotel looked down upon the sea. The Kinneret as we saw it was without a wrinkle on its surface, without a tremor; it was smooth and shimmering as the day light waned and the sea seemed like a vast sheet of polished metal. For so long, The Sea of Galilee had been a much revered name where the Lord had performed miracles and recruited His apostles and now we were standing by its side marvelling at its placid water looking ethereal in the moonlit night. The sea looked inviting. We wanted to touch the water, to be on its shores. The hours between dusk and dawn seemed to be longest. Before the veils of darkness were lifted next morning we found ourselves wading through the crystal clear waters of the shallow sea, collecting pebbles and posing for pictures.
In the evening, we were rewarded with a boat ride on the waters of the sea. A prayer service was held on the boat in the Sea of Galilee and yes we were reminded that the sea of life is full of strife and struggles, was not without sobs, sniffles and smiles but one could simply have faith and walk on water holding His firm hands and cross over to safe land. We experienced heaven at that heavenly hour when the setting sun turned the Kinneret crimson and the cluster of buildings on a hilltop located at a distance were lit up by the fading lights. This was beauty and peace divine. I thanked God for the blessed friendship that had brought me to His land.
Travelling north, from Nazareth towards Jerusalem, we came across an ancient Aqueduct built by the ingenious Romans. As we excitedly jumped out of our coach, we came upon the most pristine of beaches in the world overlooking the crystal blue Mediterranean. How did we play and frolic like we had no care in the world. And for that moment time stood still for us.
The excellent infrastructure of the Holy Land not only made in-land travelling easy in fact it became a pleasure. Besides, we were also rewarded with rare sights – of olive and banana plantations, dates and palms, pomegranates and figs, melons and grapes, apples and sycamore trees. The trees seem to have the gift of mighty bounty here – olive, sycamore, grapes and dates seemed to be competing with their leaves — surely it is the land of milk and honey-abundance is its blessing. The pretty pine trees took us almost by surprise and the mind wandered away to the thoughts of home for a while. We sighted sheep at high altitudes and camels in the Judean desert. The small hillocks and the winding roads cutting through them took us to different destinations in Israel.
We were surprised to see how the simple villages of times long past have grown into bigger towns and cities so much so that they were almost unrecognisable by their sheer size. Much has changed for Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem. What hasn’t is the testimony that they bear to the great events – the Birth of Christ, the events of His life, His crucifixion and resurrection, the prophesied second coming through the eastern gate.
The cobbled roads of the old city of Jerusalem transported us back to those times. The old city and its suburbs are home to many sites of seminal religious importance: among them the Temple Mount, the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane, Dominus Flevit, Via Dolorosa, The Garden Tomb and many others.
Shepherds Church was one of a kind. Built in the shape of a tent it retells the story of the shepherds, their simple life and faith and their rejoicing at the Birth of the Lord. The silence and solitude of the place stayed with us long after we had left the place.
Biblically, the “Salt Sea” was a place for refuge for King David and that was where we descended next. Located 423 metres below sea level, The Dead Sea is the deepest hyper-saline lake in the world and the world’s lowest road Highway 90 runs along Israel and West Bank shores. The bewitching beauty of the vast blue expanse of the Dead Sea and the surrounding hills can be used as the ingredients of a fairy tale. It is hardly real. The float and mud experience, the attempt at soothing and revitalizing our skin with the Dead Sea clay at the shortest possible time have become part of golden memory. When we left the place we could see the twinkling lights of Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Jericho in Israel. This time the snaky roads took us to the world’s wonder — the Great Western Wall.
This wall with all its eventful history – religious and political – took us in with its feeling of space. The magnificent and massive structure looked vastly impressive. An enormous courtyard in front of the wall seemed to contain an entire humanity. In front of the magnanimous wall (remnants of a temple where God is said to have placed His ears) the devout Jews, the rabbis could be seen lost in prayer or reading portions of the Torah. The broken crevices of this ancient wall were full of prayer requests from all over the world. The wall seemed to tie mankind in one bond –sans distinctions of any kind all agonised hearts were seeking divine intervention in crisis situations.
We too placed our hands on the holy wall, prayed in deep reverential silence and mixed and mingled with the great multitude that had gathered in one of the most sought after places in the world. The visit was in the last leg of the tour and by then all the forty-four of us had become great friends — love had bound us all in close ties of friendship. We had shared and cared and loved and laughed together and at the end of the tour I thought, if mere humans can connect so closely within the confines of our limited time and space, how much more should we connect with Him who came to offer Himself freely for us? We returned home happy and content. But the magic of the land rarely leaves you alone. Since our return not a single day has passed when the hungry heart has not missed the sights and sounds of so precious, so holy a land whose hallmark is breath-taking beauty, bounty, benevolence and blessing divine. Praise the Lord for His wonderful gift called life with all its attendant blessings – of all his blessings it’s the gift of friendship that I celebrate in His name.
The powerful emotions experienced in Israel will continue to lure me well beyond the years. Of that I am sure but what I am almost convinced of is, each time I think of the place I shall say to the beautiful Sharon, ‘Thank you Sharon, for being my precious friend’.
(The writer and Sharon Dkhar, both teachers in Shillong College, have been friends for more than a decade now.)