Nazareth to Cana

I woke up at 4am, still not adjusted to the time change. I went to the roof to watch the sunrise but I was way too early. Instead I saw the stars. I could see four planets in the eastern sky all in a row from left to right I guessed at which ones I thought they were. Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn I confirmed them with my SkyView app on my phone.

I remembered a verse from Psalms – “He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” I wondered if Jesus as a boy looked into the same Nazareth sky and saw the same stars? So much in Nazareth has changed over the last 2000 years, but certainly the stars and their placement in the night sky had not. I wondered if Jesus knew the real names of the planets… the names his Father had given them. Did he whisper them under his breathe keeping these intimate thoughts to himself? He must have been learning these verses as a boy. “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.”

“Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭147:1-6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

We started our day by visiting the Church of Annunciation. The church is built upon the cave believed to be where Mary, the mother of Jesus lived. Behind the church is an archeological site of the cave and the church is built around and above it. From inside the church you can see the other entrance to the cave. The architecture is both historical and modern. It was very peaceful in the church. I could have stayed there for hours.

We then visited the Church of Joseph right next door. It too had an archeological site below.

We began taking the stairs up out of Nazareth. The Jesus Trail book says their are 900 steps. My GPS showed 1 mile to the top. This photo was taken at just over the halfway point looking back at Nazareth.

We grabbed some sandwiches for later and began hiking towards Sepphoris / Zippori. The trek was a constant uphill and downhill. The trail was marked, but we used the Jesus Trail on the All Trails app to stay on the route. Periodically, we would stop for a story or a break.

Zip pori is an archeological site and was the capital of Galilee during Jesus’ day. The city was built by Romans and had a theatre, Roman roads, mosaics and a tabernacle. Because of its proximity to Nazareth, it seems likely Joseph and Jesus helped build the city for the Romans.

Side note, the gift shop at the park had canned iced coffee. I had 2!

We continued our journey towards Cana. We passed through a fully Muslim community that was built on a steep hill. I was surprised how many Muslims live in Nazareth and Cana.

We stayed at the Cana Wedding guest next door to the Cans Wedding church.