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Yesterday I went for a walk after we got back to the Kibbutz, and sat down on a chunk of basalt near a watermelon field to drink my instant coffee and enjoy the view. Our Kibbutz is in the Jezreel Valley, not far from Nazareth. In fact, from where I was sitting, I had a direct view of the mount which is remembered to be the one where Jesus was almost thrown off, after he returned to Nazareth and taught in their synagogue. I was at the top of that mount with JUC about a month ago. This picture is the view I had. It's the pointy one in the middle. Of course, we don't really know if that was the exact mountain, Luke just says "They brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff." (Luke 4:29). Nazareth is just behind that mount, in a little bit of a depression, so you can't see it from bellow. 
Even if that isn't the exact spot, it's pretty neat to think about Jesus growing up just behind it, and looking down into this valley where I was sitting. And now, he's in and with me, looking back at it!
This semester I've been a lot of places that Jesus would have been, but it wasn't really sensational. A lot changes in 2000 yrs! But mountains tend to stay the same, and I was struck in a new way to think that my eyes were looking at the place Jesus lived for most his life. Wow. It made me so thankful that God sent Jesus to grow up here as a human, and also as the Christ. 

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