Friday, December 25, 2020

Christmas is here, and camel race I saw near Jericho

 I am happy each time I read John 3:16, where we learn that God loves us so much that he gave his only son so that those of us who believe in him will have eternal life. The gates of heaven are open to all of his followers.

Above is one of the nativity sets from my house. I made the stable decades ago.

More good words from the Bible: "For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a son is given; And the government shall be upon his shoulders And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. "
Isaiah 9:6-7

I love the depictions of the wise men and camels on their long journey following the star to what it was shining on, a humble stable and newborn King. While I traveled in Jordan and Lebanon, I saw Bedouins in the desert of Jordan compete in camel races, in years gone by, and these scenes remain meaningful to me. Below is a photo I took of a Bedouin and camels at the race.

In fact, I so loved my time living in the Middle East and studying there that I wrote my senior thesis on the architecture of mosques, "The History of the Development of Mosques."

Here is another Scripture apt for today: 

"Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.'

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another 'Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about'." Luke 2:13-15.
 

I hope each and every one of you, my blog friends of many beliefs, let joy find you this holiday season.


20 comments:

  1. A blessed & holy Christmas to you & yours! ~Andrea xoxo

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  2. Thank you for the Bible verses. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

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  3. Amen and Amen! I'm wishing you a wonderful Christmas as we celebrate His birth.
    Blessings and love,
    Betsy

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  4. Thank you for a lovely post. I hope your Christmas is a blessed one.

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  5. Hope you've had a peaceful and blessed Christmas. Thanks for dropping in on my blog and commenting. It's good to meet new blog friends.

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  6. Oh, how interesting! I do remember the Bedouin tribe people too. We went to Israel in 1999 and loved every minute of it! I enjoyed visiting your blog!

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  7. Dear Terra,

    I love thes precious words from the Holy Bible! So much!! The pictures are spiritual and tell the wonder-ful story of HIS coming into the world.

    MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and to yours!

    Greetings into this holy time from the Bavarian Forest from Dori

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  8. It's wonderful that you were able to spend time to study in Jordan and Lebanon. Wishing you very peaceful, happy holidays.

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  9. Wishing you joy as well for this holiday season.

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  10. Wonderful post, and I love seeing the real camels! I bet that was quite an adventure for you! You can certainly envision the Wise Men on their journey in quest of the Newborn King of the Jews! What a marvelous story! Thank you for sharing your pictures with us. Love this, and hope you and yours had a blessed and beautiful Christmas.

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  11. Lovely post! Hopefully, someday I would be able to see those historic places in the Middle East.
    I hope you had a wonderful Christmas.
    Enjoy the holidays!

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  12. I would love to visit the Middle East. Living there must have been fascinating.

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  13. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Terra. The camel races must have been something to see. I spent a few years working deep inside the Sahara but never ran across anything like that. We did have the occasional visitor out at the drilling rigs, even tragically having one visitor who was watering his camels drown by falling into a place he couldn't escape.

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  14. I'm late with holiday greetings but I hope your holiday was beautiful, Terra. Onward, to a happy new year.

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  15. Wow Terra ~ what a wonderful experience you had that has stayed with and inspired you all those years ago and even now. Thanks for the scriptures with photos. May this last week of 2020 be good and may 2021 be a better year for us all. ~ Love, hugs and prayers ~ FlowerLady

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  16. Beautiful post. Yes, even for those of us who have a particular sadness during this Christmas season, we can be comforted that our hardships are temporary when we know Jesus as our Savior.

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  17. Terra... how awesome! I would love to have seen all the things you have! I really can't imagine even! Thank you for sharing about your travels... and the photos too! I would love to hear even more.... also your little dog is just adorable. I miss having one so much. Give him a hug for me. Happy new year! Lea

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