The word image in the title of this site has two connotations. The first refers to the Holy Land photographs on this website and the pages of Blessed Pilgrimage (a four-volumn series of books on the Holy Land). The second relates to scriptural images found in the Bible. These include the Star of Jacob, the Seed of David, the Passover Lamb, etc. What do you think about when you see these images? Can you relate them to Jesus and His life in the land made Holy by His Name? Is there a reason to try?
Photography records an image as a series of pixels (picture elements). The digital photo below was taken on the climb from Kibbutz En Gev on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee to Sussita (Hippos), one of ten Decapolis cities in New Testament times. You see the sloping hills of the Golan Heights in the foreground, and the southern end of the Sea of Galilee (upper right).
The image on the left is a sample taken from the above photo in the area of the green bush (bottom center—viewed on the pixel level). Up close, it isn’t very pretty and doesn’t tell us very much. To see the photo correctly, you have to step back and look at it from a distance.
Many people who visit the Holy Land want to know where Jesus stood. However, the Bible does not tell us much about such things. If it did, we might be tempted to idolize the place instead of the Man. Standing too close, focusing on the place, might cause us to miss the beauty of the message.
In Jesus’s day, people came from all over the Decapolis to see the miracles He performed. In the top photo, you can see Jesus walking with His disciples. You see the land as He would have seen it, but you must mentally put yourself there. The bottom photo might represent the people who came to witness the miracles only to miss the message.
The title of chapter three in Blessed Pilgrimage: The Way of Christ the Lord is “Experience to Learn.” I share a few ideas about how to experience the Holy Land on tour or from home. You can read it here for free.