Day 7 Raining Chairs

Chairs — one plastic and two metal — came crashing upon the shelter above our heads today. The first one took us by surprise; the shattered plastic pieces flew in all directions. The second one sent us scrambling away from the landing zone. We watched the third one come in slow motion from the safety of a distance. We can only guess why it rained chairs, but add that to the list of complicated. I thank God no one was hurt.

Today, we were archeological tourists. We followed the uncovered ruins of Jerusalem, layer after layer, from ancient to present, from under the Kidron Valley to the foot of the Temple Mount. We waded through the spring waters in the Hezekiah Tunnel. We imagine how the tunnel was chilled out of the stone, saw many clues of their course-correcting, and wondered what the decision-making process was like. We sat at Siloam and imagined the blind man sent by Jesus there to wash his sight back. We wondered what the empires did to that pool in the centuries that follow, and what attracted people to come back to that pool in this arid land again and again, whether or not that pool is filled with water.

Everyone has a story of why they came here and what the land and history means to them. I wonder what the story was behind those hands that rain down the chairs on us.