Soon after the trip was over, Lent would begin. I figured I'd have a different perspective on the region where Jesus spent 40 days in the Judean Desert/Wilderness. One might expect photos like the following, which were taken from Masada, Israel or near it. Masada offers a high fortress that provided a great view.
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| Looking Down from Masada |
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| Edge of the Cliffs of Masada |
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| Ground Level Approaching Masada |
But as the last photo shows, there's some hint of green vegetation, even in the most arid region I saw. And when one looks a little north of there, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, just looking at the background of the photo of the sign looks NOTHING like the typical photos I've seen of the caves of that area. That region is usually also very arid.
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| Sign by the Dead Sea Scrolls Trail, Lots of Plant Life |
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| Stepping Back from the Sign |
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| Lots of Flowers Near Dead Sea Scrolls Caves Area |
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| Close-up on the Flowers |
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| Showing Just How Full the Plains Are With Flowers |
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| Panoramic View |
The Judea Desert is mostly between that mountain range and Jerusalem. Some of that land was still a bit arid. But even in those areas, the valleys had signs of greening up.
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| Desert Hills with Valleys Greening Up |
The Judea Desert has some animals grazing on the green plants and other things in the lower valleys.
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| Animals Like the Green Valleys |
People often think "green pastures" are lush green fields. But when the Bible refers to green pastures, they refer to hills like the following images capture...although usually with much less green. Usually, the hills would just have some barely green plants or dried out plants to munch on. The animals graze in lines, maintaining roughly the same elevation, and other animals will be above them or below them. They will eat one line of plants. Between this eating pattern and the way the animals will "fertilize" the ground behind them and compress the ground they walk on, I think it preserves the streaky formation in which the plants grow. There is a herd of animals in the second photo below on the right edge of the photo.
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| This is What We Call Green Pastures, and Boy are They Green! |
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| Green Pastures with Animals |
Those were close-up views of the hills. But the next few photos show some distance shots of the hills. The hills are alive...with the ...plants that are green. I didn't hear any music, so if you read that like the Sound of Music theme, that's on you.
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| Most of the Judean Desert Looks Like This Now! |
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| And This! |
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| And This, Too! |
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| This Photo Just Had Too Much Variety in Colors (and some reflection) |
So what does this do for my reflections on Jesus in the desert? Well, I have to think of what Masada looked like to envision that kind of arid land and paint that upon the rolling hills of the Judean Wilderness.
But I also realize that after a time of death, decay, and desert, life springs forth. Even the sinkholes by the Dead Sea now contain some fish, which doesn't make much sense, since the sea itself is too salty for animals to live. I will have a post for the Dead Sea itself later. But in general, some areas near that sea are teaming with life.
As usual, purple flowers come first. It's so fitting that the prominent Lenten color is purple. But anyone who pays attention to flowers and the seasons should realize that purple flowers come first each year, with yellow flowers often showing up before the purple/violet flowers fade. So the colors I saw suggest the beginning of new life. If allowed to thrive for a while longer, there might be many other colors. But for such an arid area, it would be hard to imagine. But who would expect flowers there at all?
Jesus went through the desert before facing the moments that ended his life. But even then, it was followed with new life--the victory over death. Each spring, after the wintertime, when things die off, we see new life spring forth, typically starting during Lent and displaying that familiar purple color.
It was beautiful to see a dead zone so full of life. But it's harder for me to take the desert as seriously as a secluded, desolate, and resourceless area right now.
On the trip, we passed through this desert a few times. But to have some flow to other parts of the trip...
After we visited the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls,
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