Our last stop for day 3 is the Shepherd’s Field where the multitude of angels announced Jesus birth to the shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
So this area is, of course, not far from the nativity spot, just across a short valley, and the site is of the dwelling/home of the shepherd’s family, which is now a tiny chapel. The manger has a nativity in it, and there is a hole in the roof of the cave as a chimney, and other holes cut in that are skylights. Here’s a chimney picture.
Next to the cave is a church with great acoustics. We sang “Angels We Have Heard On High”, well, the glorias in excelsis Deo part anyway, with another group who was singing in the church when we arrived. Then we sang in there too, and I loved the look on a man’s face in the next group who came into the chapel after us, who obviously didn’t speak English because he was enjoying us singing a familiar tune in English as much as we were enjoying the group before us singing a familiar tune in, I think, Latin. At least that’s the way I interpreted the look on his face.
In front of the church is a fountain with sheep, cool.
Afterwards, this area, during the Byzantine time, was inhabited by folks worshiping here. There is evidence of a Byzantine church with a tile floor, and a baptismal pool. That was cool.
Then there were a series of cave dwellings that we got to walk. Or sometimes crawl through. I swear these were short people living here. Evan and I and a few other brave souls crawled through one of the larger ones. Very cool!
Yes, we were in that cave…
There’s a skylight cut into the roof of the cave.
It was neat to imagine the place where the heavens opened with angels singing and praising God.
The evening concluded with the drive back to the hotel through the checkpoint and a great supper. Super nice hotel, the Dan Panorama. I tried to stay awake for the talk with Pastor, but couldn’t make it anymore. I napped for a few hours and then woke up to FaceTime Jake and chat with some family. I blogged for a couple hours and then passed out again. Not a lot of sleep, but good. Now as I type, we are on our way on the bus to Masada and the location of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran, as well as a visit to the Dead Sea for a swim. More later!