Bethlehem!!!

Well today was very exciting!
We started off the day at the Herodian National Park. It was a fortress that Herod the Great built, surrounded by mountains to hide it from being seen. It was also the very spot where his tomb was found. It was still being excavated when we got there, but what they have dug up so far was great! Just the size of Herod's sumer palace was enough to make anyone stop in thier tracks. After looking around the tel, we went under the mountian, into a cistern that went across the palace. I think walking through that was one of my favorite parts about this spot.
Then we went off towards Bethlehem...a designated area given to the Palestinian people, even though it is part of Israel. When we got to the inspection we actually had to switch buses, and tour guides since Israeli's cannot go in.
Our first sight was the Church of the Nativity. There were actually three churches there, Amerindian, Catholic, and Christian. When we went inside, we walked down some stairs and into what appeared to more like a cave. It was the actual spot where the manger was the night Jesus was born. They even had it marked off on a spot where Jesus was actually born.
I always had an idea of what it would have been like to go to the actual place of Jesus' birth, even as a child, I would create imaginative stories of what it would have been like to even walk on the same ground of such a great man, whom everyone followed. At that time I never understood Jesus and his mission, yet I knew that for some distinct reason he was a great person. Now that I have had the chance to visit the place of his birth, nothing has really changed. A great miracle didn't happen while we were there, I didn't gain this huge spiritual revelation, but it did help me come to the revelation of t=one thing. Jesus is as much alive today as he was yesterday. He might not have been in the manger while we were there at that very moment, but he was still right there with us in a sense, but just in a different way. God is always there even when we visit such a significant site, where something occurred so long ago. I learned a lot today, but what i mainly learned was that Jesus won't be in every sight we visit, yet it's still dear to my heart.