Peter left the sea to give the first sermon, to tell the Gospel story to innumerable men and women, and to die without fear as a martyr upon a Roman cross. I left with a handful of seashells, and a call to come back to the United States to tell everyone who would listen what I learned when I fell into the Bible.

Final Note

"If you go to Israel once, you will want to go back again and again." I'd heard these words as many times as I'd heard, "You're going where?" I would nod and say, "That's what they tell me." But inside I was thinking: No, no. If I go once, I'll be satisfied.

Allow me to conclude these articles with a final note. One trip to Israel will never ever be enough. If I were to be allowed the privilege of an annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, still it wouldn't be enough. 

Something happens to you when you're there. You hear God's heartbeat ... you feel His breath. You know beyond all other knowledge that you've been called home ... and have arrived.

I have shed homesick tears with the writing of each of these articles. I find myself longing for a people whom God called "His inheritance."  As I daily read my Bible, I am blessed with a deeper sense of the land, of the characters, of the desire God has always had for His children to draw close to Him -- to reach for His heart -- to stroke His face. 

And I pray, sincerely pray, that everyone who reads my words about Israel, will someway, somehow, some day make the trip to discover what I now know -- and will, like me, fall into the Bible, and more in love with God than they ever knew they could be.

Photo by Dana Kempler. Eva Marie Everson is the author of Shadow of Dreams & Summon the Shadows and an award-winning national speaker.  She can be contacted for comments or for speaking engagement bookings at Bridegroomsbride@aol.com

Other Articles in This Series:
Falling Into The Bible: The Garden Tomb
Falling Into The Bible: The Chapel At The Fifth Station
Falling Into The Bible, Part 5: The Sea of Galilee
Ruth: Gleaning in the the Fields of Jesus
Falling into the Bible 3 -- Mt. Tabor; Above All, Jesus!

Falling Into The Bible, Part 2: Mary's Well

Falling into the Bible: The Ancient City of Hazor