5,834 Miles

 

Sitting on the porch of our condo in Ocean City early this morning I was curious what geographical area was directly east of me.  Surprisingly it was not Spain which I had expected but the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea.  It occurred to me that one could go directly by boat across the Atlantic into the Mediterranean and straight to Israel.  This led me to wonder how many miles directly from here to Jerusalem? Turns out its 5,834 miles.

I felt some kind of connection by water to the place  that Jesus had walked.  It all seemed very near and real to me.

Last week I talked with a friend about "truth." Like me, he did not think truth was relative, that something was either true or not true.  When I mentioned the bible, he commented the bible was just stories, implying they were not true.  We talked about the fact that even if something is believed to be true, there has to be an element of faith to accepting that truth.  Driving a car for example involves an element of faith that the other people will obey signs and lane markers, things we know to be true.

Staring across the expanse of the sea this morning I was thankful for the little reminder that 5,834 miles away over 2,000 years ago, a baby was born in Bethlehem.   The child grew to be a man, walking the roads around Israel loving, laughing, crying, praying, teaching and healing and ultimately dying on a cross in Jerusalem.  This was not a mythical story but something that really happened.  Faith in Him is not based on stories or things that didn't happen.  For some reason it was important for me this morning to feel connected to a real place where a real man lived.  

What is "truth?"  Jesus said, "I am the Truth."  It all happened 5,834 miles away.