A Matter of Perspective

The other day I was eating breakfast at a convent in Nazareth. Although the breakfast was delicious in my opinion, my friend Jason Andrus started complaining about the peaches, suggesting that they really weren't very good. Instead of being yellow and squishy, they were white and hard. I told him that he just had to change his perspective--they weren't the yellow and squishy kind of peaches, they were the white and hard kind. If you were expecting white and hard fruit, they were really quite good. But if you were expecting yellow and squishy fruit, they were disgusting and unripe.

This is the way it is with the Holy Land. A lot of people come here to have a great spiritual awakening, or to see their testimonies unfold before their eyes, or to be overcome by the Spirit and have a marvelous vision in places like Capernaum, the Garden of Gethsemane, or Bethlehem. Instead, most of the time you get noisy, crowded streets, annoying street hawkers, pushy tourists, and piles of ruins. But the testimony builders and faith-strengthening experiences come in quiet moments, like what Sister Hinckley referred to when she visited Nazareth and saw a camel, which strengthened her testimony in a special way. Since the transcript is not available online, here is what she said:

"When I became an adult, my love for the Savior took on a new dimension when we visited the Holy Land. We came into Nazareth at noon. The main street in Nazareth is narrow, slightly uphill; it was crowded with merchants selling their wares: everything from fish from the Sea of Galilee to nylons and pots and pans. The noise level was high. School children were on their way home from lunch. And at the bottom of the street was an enormous camel. And there was a group of children gathered around this animal, just chattering with excitement. There were two boys, about age nine, who were walking up the street, one of them walking backwards as they threw a ball back and forth. I said to myself, 'Is this the way it was when Jesus was a boy? Did he go home for lunch with His friends, and did He stop to look at the camel? And did He throw a ball back and forth?'

"Even though He was divine, omnipotent, the Prince of Peace, the King of Glory, I began to understand more fully that He also was mortal. He lived in the same world that we live in. He had to overcome, just as you and I have to overcome. He had to discipline Himself to get up in the morning to do His chores. He had to study and do his homework. He had to learn to get along with His peers and learn obedience. My love for Him knew no bounds."

This is how I have found the Holy Land. The faith-strengthening times come in quite moments, sometimes when I am least expecting it. Like two days ago, when I visited the Church of the Annunciation, and then walked over to what was supposedly Mary's house. As I walked down among the ruins I was suddenly struck by a deeper love for Mary and a greater testimony of her goodness and purity. I pictured her doing her chores, perhaps overhearing the noisy street outside, perhaps just having gotten back from the crowded market, and having an angel appear to her and telling her that she would be the mother of the Savior of the world.

For the best experience in the Holy Land, then, you just have to change your perspective. You will get out of the Holy Land what you are prepared to receive--and what you are willing to accept.

(This isn't a camel, but it is in Nazereth. This little boy is riding in a suitcase on the back of a bicycle through town. I stopped them and asked if I could take a picture because it was cute. By the way, all three of them were riding on one bike.)