Something for the soul

As an antidote to the bad news that has preceded this item, this is in a class all of its own. I was considering keeping this piece for my Good News Friday post, but it really deserves and needs a stand-alone post.

Ascending a precipice, we approach a lone tree reaching upwards to its Maker. (photo: Qanta Ahmed)

This is simply one of the most beautiful and moving articles about Israel that I have ever read. You may think it is written in prose, but it is pure poetry. It could almost be set to music.

It brought tears to my eyes and made me yearn for my country – and I’m right here, living in it.

The most incredible thing about this is that it’s written by a Muslim woman of Pakistani origin, the amazing Dr. Qanta Ahmed.

Here’s just a short excerpt of “This is the Land” which is also accompanied by the most glorious photos of Israel, taken by Qanta Ahmed herself:

Rolling fields are immaculately tended. Not an inch of space goes to waste. Dates, mangoes, bananas grow in neat lines, ranks of an impossible army. Some of the more delicate fruits are veiled – protection from bats. For the first time I see pomegranate trees! Gracefully bowed, their short branches deeply curved, weighted with still young fruit supplicate to the Holy land.

The golden land of Galilee. (photo: Qanta Ahmed)

[…]

Yet still the land unfolds: fields; lapis-colored reservoirs; soft rolling hills. No one has prepared me for the soft beauty of the Golan. In my brain I had conjured images of a demilitarized zone, barren, desecrated and godforsaken. Instead I see a landscape which speaks England. Neat fields, intensely green, pepper the landscape. Soft brown hills evoke the Scottish Highlands save the purple heather. This land was host to conflicts and wars, bunkers and bombs? Somehow, like the rest of Israel, the resilient land has recovered and not only repaired, but blossomed, responding to destruction with incredible vitality and bold beauty. What spirit, this land!

[…]

After two weeks of being in Israel, I now accept there are many things here I will not understand, including how Israelis can move towards not only tolerance in peace, but nurturing partnerships with those once their mortal enemies.

[…]

In the days before I have clumsily clambered over Jerusalem. I have competed with tourists from every corner of the globe. I have stayed in East Jerusalem and West. I have visited shrines to the three great monotheisms and cast prayers at every site, some written, some spoken, all heartfelt. But nothing prepares for the view of Jerusalem as God sees it – the view from His heavenly throne.

If those words alone didn’t move you to tears you need to read some more.  Be sure to click on all the photos in both photo galleries accompanying this article. They are a work of art in themselves.

Go and read “This is the Land“. You know you want to.