Psalm 100

After a two-page post, this will be short. I promise.

I haven’t seen anything like the landscape I’ve seen here: - hazy backdrops that look like a green screen; deep valleys; huge, desert mountains that seem to never end; a 500+ year old city wall outside my window; ancient, ornate churches. They list could go on.

On top of all that, I’m in Israel- the place where most all the Biblical narrative took place. I can see and touch things I might never have the opportunity to see and touch and taste and hear again. And not only do I get to see it, I get to actually learn about and know what things are that I would otherwise only appreciated from a distance. I get to go to school and take classes on it. This may show my nerdiness more than I hope, but I get to learn both Greek and Hebrew languages over here so I can see things in a text that I would never have seen in just the English. I get to dive into the original language the David, or Moses, or Paul wrote in. I get pretty hyped about that.

All this to say, the past couple week I’ve had some pretty insatiable longings after God. That might not be the right way to put it. The psalmist says, “As the deer pants for the water. Or Brother Lawrence explains “delicious thoughts about the Lord.” I understood these strange

descriptions a little more this past week, and the root of it I think was God creating in me a thankful heart. I’m traditionally fairly pessimistic (I like to think realist) but God overwhelmed me this week. He’s filled me with some passionate, deep longings of thankfulness and praise for this opportunity. So with another quick shout out to mom and dad, that is all.

Incredibly Thankful,
Sos