walking in nature.

today, i walked. i walked for two hours. i walked in nature, away from interstates, cars and pollution. i walked with my husband. i walked on paths, paved and dirt.

there is something about breathing fresh air that is insanely freeing and alive.

-----------------

you know something? Jesus walked. He walked on Earth; He walked on earth. He breathed it and ate it and slept it.

Yesterday, I saw video footage of the place He walked. I cried, uncontrolled, for an entire hour because I couldn't stop looking at the place where He walked. He lived there, breathed the dust, argued in the markets to get a better price for food there, celebrated there, wept there.

Jerusalem. City of Peace. Have you ever known peace?

You, O City--the center of religious worship and yet somehow conflict centuries after centuries--have embodied the futile quest of humans trying to make their own peace without involving the Prince of Peace in it.

And yet, He's chosen you, dear City, as His platform to say this:

Death, where is your victory? And where, O grave, is your sting? I've conquered you, and my loved ones are chained to you no longer. So be banished, while we sing and dance on your grave, O grave.

You can no more defeat peace than My body can decay.