ASTRONAUT IN JERUSALEM

We now own and care for a rooster. I never really saw that in my future but it’s certainly for real. Our roosters name is Bob and he is getting huge and even intimidating. Bob’s “significant other” is Regina. Bob used to be “hen-pecked” until my wife began feeding him organic blueberries and other such delicacies like crickets and some kind of nasty worm. No one picks on Bob now.

       I thought about “Big Bob” while in Israel recently. We were visiting the Church of the Gallicantu (which basically means “cock-a-doodle-doo” in Hebrew). The church has a cupola with a rooster on it. That’s a one-of-a-kind thing, isn’t it? This church was constructed over Caiaphas’s palace and over the site with a dungeon occupied by Jesus on the night He was arrested and betrayed four times.

      As we looked over the grounds, some steps were pointed out to us. These steps were used by people in the first century to walk to the palace from Jerusalem. Consequently, after Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, He walked on these very steps on His way to the dungeon. I am intrigued by that on some level. Imagine that steps in your home were, at one time, used by Jesus. Maybe every time you stepped on them you would think about that—maybe?

       Standing before these steps, our guide shared a testimony with us. Prior to his death, Astronaut Neil Armstrong also visited the Church of the Gallicantu. Having recently been born again, Armstrong was also intrigued by the steps. He looked over the steps and took some time to think, only then to say something like, “…this is the most significant moment of my life.” Here is a man who knew about steps and had taken some significant steps himself. How great it must be to be so blown away by something so far beyond one’s greatest accomplishment. When Armstrong first stepped on the moon he may have thought on some level that from there it was likely downhill. What could top a moon-walk in a person’s life? Leave it to Christ to ‘one-up’ our greatest moments- but shouldn’t He?

      Just a few feet away from the steps at Gallicantu is a courtyard where Peter denied Christ and the rooster crowed thrice. Well, there it is. Regardless of our greatest accomplishments or our darkest and weakest moments, Christ shows His Supremacy. While we do things worthy of imprisonment, He marches on our behalf to the dungeon. While we accomplish things of exceptional proportions, He reveals Himself to have helped us and to have done even more on our behalf. Christ is a ‘no-lose’, ‘always-win’ proposition.

As you step out today into new opportunities remember His mindfulness towards you in all things.

-Dr. Gary Hewins,

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