Ok, so I'm actually not sure what I think about religion (I know I have a lot of thoughts on it, mind you, just not what I actually believe). I do know that I just recently took the Jesus-tour of Israel (in addition to the Jewish-tour and Mohammad-tour). And I was thinking that I saw a remarkable portion of the Christmas story. I know I've already shared a lot of my pictures of Israel with you, but I thought that seeing them in a new order might be worth it.

Stop reading now if you are even remotely concerned with the potential this entry may venture into blasphemy, cause it probably will. But it doesn't change how remarkable these places are.

We went to Nazareth. Jesus's hometown and Mary's home.

We visited the Basilica of the Annunciation, thought to be at site of a cave where Mary was informed by the Angel Gabriel that she would be having God's child. Now, mind you, we had a lot of discussion about whether she was told or asked, and if it was really God asking, isn't it all hypothetical, what are you going to do, say "No, God, I was planning on waiting a few years before having a kid, this is bad timing for me, why don't you find someone else?"

Anyway, the Church was quite modern. This is said to be the precise spot where Mary was standing as she was told about the impending virgin birth:

There are actually about 12 churches of annunciation in Nazareth. Presumably all claiming the annunciation took place nearby. Anyway, the other winning contender was Mary's Well, following the story that Mary was heading to the Well to get water when she was met by the Angel Gabriel.

I didn't get a picture of the well, it wasn't really well kept up and I was distracted by the awesome Cactus jewelry stop and its awesome underground bathhouse. The bathhouse is actually leading archeologists to believe that Nazareth wasn't as small a town as people though. Anyway, nearby is the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation which was beautiful and has a lovely shrine over the source of the spring that feeds Mary's well.

And then we went to Bethlehem.

On our way in, we stopped at Shepherd's Hill. We didn't expect to stop here, and didn't really understand the significance at first. But it was a surprisingly beautiful and peaceful place. I would happily volunteer to be a shepherd if I could spend my days at a place like this. I will quote the Bible (maybe for the only time on this blog):

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

As we all know, Jesus was born in the Manger at Bethlehem. Historians and theologians postulate many reasons for Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem while she was about to pop with a pregnancy. The leading contenders are that they were there to be counted in the census. It turns out it was really a cave that was converted to a manger. Also it turns out that Jesus might not have actually been born in Bethlehem depending on how you read the various stories, however, it is important to Jewish tradition that he was, since prophecy said he was to be born in the "city of David."

The Catholics and Orthodox, of course, built a lovely church over the site of the birth. They say it has a world famous Christmas service.

This is where Jesus was born. It was in the cave in the basement below the main part of the Church. I was very good about not being sarcastic and questioning how anyone could possibly have known that was exactly the precise place. But now its my blog and I can be as sarcastic as I want.

And if you think I was doing good about avoiding sarcasm before, you can sense my disbelief when I was told this was the place where Jesus was laid to rest right after he was born. I know, its the symbolism that matters.

So, there you go, the reason for the season. It was a pretty amazingly cool trip. I brought home my own little nativity scenes made of local olive wood. That makes me happy.

I am thinking of maybe another, more morbid, installment at Easter?