Okay, for those of you who need to bone up on your Bible history, here’s little primer.  For the rest of you, just bear with us for a second, please.

The parents of Jesus, Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth.  Nazareth is one of the little towns in the northern part of The Holy Land near the Sea of Galilee.  It’s where Jesus grew up.  But Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which is down south of Jerusalem, because Ceasar had ordered everyone to go to their hometowns to be counted in a census.  Which is why Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem when Mary was pregnant.  And because everybody and his brother were traveling all over the place, all the B and B’s were filled.  So our Lord was essentially born out back somewhere.

Capernaum is also a little town up in Galilee, right on the shore of the lake.  It’s where Peter lived and where Jesus went to do his ministry after being baptized by John.  Most of Jesus’ first Disciples and Followers grew up, and lived, and worked in this area.  End of primer.

Somewhere on this hill Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount which famously began with the Beatitudes. (see previous post).  This photo, from near the top, looks west over the Sea of Galilee.  Across the water is the Golan Heights.  This area is so beautiful.

A church has been on this site since the 4th Century and this is what it looks like today.

This was a very moving start to the day for me.  So I am very well and hope you all are too.  Thanks for being out there. 🙂