Oasis of Beauty

The highway that meanders down among the hills east of Jerusalem and out onto the dry Jordan valley is called the Jericho Road. It was somewhere in these ten miles of hills where the robbers beat up the Jew that the Good Samaritan stopped to help. In fact the foundations of the Inn are still available to visitors today. Coming down the last hill you can look north four or five miles across the flat valley and see a beautiful green oasis. This is a sanctuary for the big, very hot and dry, basin that runs all the way down to the Dead Sea. Even the Sea of Galilee is in this basin and its self is 700 ft. below sea level. Elisha greatly improved this oasis of trees and crops thousands of years ago when he visited the town. Then he went out to the spring (of Jericho) and threw salt into it, saying; this is what the Lord says: I have healed this water. 2 Kings 2:21 You can still drink this water when you visit and it tastes wonderful.

Date palm trees are everywhere in this oasis town and you can buy this sweet fruit at many places in town. Standing at the edge of this green area we can look out at the surrounding desert and wonder which direction would take us to the place that Jesus lived forty days without food. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Matt 4:1 Sometimes we feel like there is a spiritual desert all around us. Jesus is our beautiful oasis but there are times when we wonder if our hope is real or not. When people visit an oasis we feel something that is nowhere else in our experience. It is like stepping out of the hot sun into a cool place where a little breeze seems to lift your feelings to a level of drifting, free of care. This is a place where a complete feeling of peace seems to soak into your soul. King Herod built a retreat in Jericho and even died there about a year after Jesus was born.

The Christian life is an oasis in our world. Unfortunately, many people cannot see this beautiful place although it is readily available. There is a fitting story that happened just as Jesus approached Jericho two thousand years ago. Jesus asked him, what do you want me to do for you? Lord, I want to see, he replied. Jesus said to him, receive your sight; your faith has healed you. Luke 18:40-42 Many people are just not asking Jesus to show them this beautiful spiritual oasis. The blind man had never seen this beautiful place and he must have been overwhelmed the first time his eyes opened on the oasis.  It seems that everyone today is looking for this place of peace in their life but they cannot see what is right in front of them. Are you standing alongside of this peaceful place but have never seen it?