The last day we were in Jordan, John and I made a Pilgrimage of sorts – to the spring at Bethany-on-the-Jordan – to the place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

Here we are at the site.




Logic and recent (circa 1996) archeaology almost guarantees that this spot was where Jesus and John the Baptist actually entered the water. This view is of a spring, and the water from it used to join the Jordan in this spot. (After Syria and Israel put up their various dams, the Jordan shrank significantly, which is why you don’t see the rushing waters right now.)

If John the Baptist had picked any other spot, he couldn’t have baptized anybody, because the Jordan was so swift then that people would have been swept away.

It was an amazing sight – and very moving.




“Now in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’

“For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

“Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.

“Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.”




“…and he said

‘I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming
after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand,
and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat
into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’ “

“When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.”

~ Matthew 3: 1 – 17

I’m going to go ahead and start this off with a great picture of John with a Jordanian goat. The thing had enormously long ears…freakishly long, actually…and followed him around like a dog.

This will come in handy, later, as you see the pictures of me trying to get one to even let me get close.

It kills me that I am the hardcore animal lover in the family, yet they all gravitate toward HIM. (It also kills me that as the public affairs officer in the family, where taking a decent picture is a Level 1 Task, John also just has an “eye” for photography and takes way better pictures. Photo credits (except when he’s in them) go to John.)

Anyhoo, Jerash is a small site of Roman ruins about 45 minutes north of Amman, and we were in Jordan for a conference. The conference ended and we had one day to travel before we flew out.

So, we did. (Travel to a Jordanian site, that is.)

And we’re so glad we did. Jerash was amazing. See the little lizard on top of the column?

We were amazed at the pillars – this particular one (complete with cute little birdie) moved a little bit when the wind blew – a bit disconcerting.

Here we are in front of a fountain dedicated to the Nymphs.

Men were men, even back then.

{Sigh}

And here we are, in the Northern Theater – so amazingly acoustically perfect that we could hear each other from opposite sides, even when we whispered.

All right. So here we go. This is the Goat Sequence.

MAN was I frustrated when after all this, John had a little one just following him around!

But this was before that.

This is called “Showing John How It Should Be Done.”

Step One: “Heeeeeeere, Billy Goat!”


“Wanna be friends?”

“Yeah, right, Lady…not on your life. Let me sniff you before you take another step.”

“And I guess you can pet my head…

“…hmmm.

“Maybe I should head-butt you…”

“Look, John! What a sweet Billy Goat!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Hmmmm….yeah, this broad is really starting to annoy me now. If I get a running start….”

“Maybe I could bite her fingers instead?”

“Unbelievable. Is she for real?

“Finally!

“Ugh…that’s 5 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.”

Meanwhile, here came John, who handed me the camera, looked around for a goat, and all of a sudden – there she was…ready to get a pat on the head from him.

Hmmph.

Here it is, again:

So, back to the pictures of The Ruins.

Here’s John demonstrating how short the folks must have been back then…in the corridor of the Northern Theater.

More beautiful pillars…

Difference in architecture between then and now…(we like the “then”.)

Hadrian’s Gate.

Chariot Ruts!

See? There they are!

A lovely Mosaic floor in one of the many Christian churches on the site…

…and the close-up. (Thank you, telefoto lens!)

Figs! I love figs!

Pretty darn good camouflage.

The colors were so beautiful!

Nope, Mom. Didn’t drive to Syria (though we’d love to see Damascus!)

This picture’s for you, anyway! Ha!

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