#thenegev

[libertymadison]

View this post on Instagram

New years at the #negev #thenegev

[omelian42]

Great and Terrible (The Negev)

I don't have too much to post, mainly because I think that the Negev can speak for itself. I did, however, want to give some context. Hannah and I departed on Sunday to travel 2 hours south out past Be'er Sheva to Mitzpe Ramon, which is a town perched on the edge of Makhtesh Ramon in the Negev. Makhtesh Ramon, in turn, is a kind of crater, and it was formed by movement of the Asian and African tectonic plates against each other. (Fun fact: since they occur only in Israel, the scientific name for such a crater is also its Hebrew name, "Makhtesh.") It is a gorgeous setting, with that beauty that is unique to deserts and perhaps the sea.* The sheer vastness of the desert coupled with its beauty offers an experience of the sublime in the truest, philosophical sense of the word. (Think terrible in its original meaning.) It also makes you appreciate the grace of God all the more. If you were actually stuck out there, you would only survive by pretty miraculous means, and the fact that we as people are able to not only live but build settlements in such a place is one of it truest signs of grace I've seen. We are little more than dust and little less than angels indeed.

*One of my favorite sights is at night when the line between the sea and horizon is impossible to find--the same thing happens in Makhtesh Ramon.