There are certain places in each country that we know ahead of time that we will definitely visit. Some others come up as we go or as we meet people that highly recommend them to us. All along we knew that Bethany Beyond the Jordan was in our plans and I had personally been anxious about the day we would get to it and now all of a sudden we had left our hotel to go there.
There are many reasons for which we choose every day to be independent travelers, we read a lot about the places and history, and we could not stand having someone give us only 10 minutes to see certain things. And this was definitely the case with Bethany Beyond the Jordan.
We decided not to join the tour that our hotel offered and do it on our own using public transportation. We found ourselves sitting in a mini bus crowded with headscarves and smiley people almost proud of these foreigners that were mixed in with the locals. They did their best efforts in English and we did our share in Arabic.
Driving there from Madaba was very interesting and little by little as the city fell behind us we started descending into the valley that leads to Bethany Beyond the Jordan. The scenery was exactly what we expected, just as described in the bible and as portrayed in all biblical paintings. The earth drops from 800meters high where Mt. Nebo is located all the way down to 400meters under sea level, where the Jordan River feeds the Dead Sea.
After being dropped off at an intersection and hiring a taxi we arrived at the site, not knowing exactly what to expect but having heard about it many times at mass:
"Then Jesus came from the Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John" (Matthew 3:13)
"This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing" (John 1:28)
... As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove an lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said "This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:16-17)
A shuttle bus took us closer to the Jordan River, it is a heavily militarized zone between Jordan and Israel, then we started to walk through this holy land. It was hot and bright under the sun and the bushes and small trees didn't provide much shelter. There are still restricted areas due to the landmines planted during the war between Israel and Palestine so it is better to stay within the marked paths. Off we went, zigzagging through the dessert on the Jordanian side, with Israel at a stone's throw, just across the Jordan River. It was very quiet and I felt the same sensation as when entering a church, that energy loaded silence with a bit of anxiety but an overwhelming surrounding peace. It was beautiful to be there, where Jesus had been baptized by John and the first five apostles met to give birth to the Catholic Religion, illegal then.
We looked around and tried to imagine what would have been back then. 40 nights in this area that even today is so inhospitable, with its extremely hot days and cold nights. We were just so grateful to be there.
We saw the pillar where Jesus was baptized after walking down into the Jordan, nowadays dry due to the low level of water in the river, and then we held the water in our hands, as we read passages from the Bible and looked around to understand the context of things.
At a certain point I asked a couple to take a few pictures of us, little did we know then that we would end up spending a couple of weeks traveling together. She was a German Religion teacher and interestingly enough had the same questions I did about everything.
Bethany Beyond the Jordan was very special to us and we very much enjoyed our visit there, but there was more to see and our taxi driver was waiting for us to take us to the Dead Sea.
Gaby
A shuttle bus took us closer to the Jordan River, it is a heavily militarized zone between Jordan and Israel, then we started to walk through this holy land. It was hot and bright under the sun and the bushes and small trees didn't provide much shelter. There are still restricted areas due to the landmines planted during the war between Israel and Palestine so it is better to stay within the marked paths. Off we went, zigzagging through the dessert on the Jordanian side, with Israel at a stone's throw, just across the Jordan River. It was very quiet and I felt the same sensation as when entering a church, that energy loaded silence with a bit of anxiety but an overwhelming surrounding peace. It was beautiful to be there, where Jesus had been baptized by John and the first five apostles met to give birth to the Catholic Religion, illegal then.
We looked around and tried to imagine what would have been back then. 40 nights in this area that even today is so inhospitable, with its extremely hot days and cold nights. We were just so grateful to be there.
We saw the pillar where Jesus was baptized after walking down into the Jordan, nowadays dry due to the low level of water in the river, and then we held the water in our hands, as we read passages from the Bible and looked around to understand the context of things.
At a certain point I asked a couple to take a few pictures of us, little did we know then that we would end up spending a couple of weeks traveling together. She was a German Religion teacher and interestingly enough had the same questions I did about everything.
Bethany Beyond the Jordan was very special to us and we very much enjoyed our visit there, but there was more to see and our taxi driver was waiting for us to take us to the Dead Sea.
Gaby
No comments:
Post a Comment