Touchstone

I sat on the steps that led up to the temple complex, and it was one of the few times that an archaeolical excavation actually meant something to me. That "touchstone" feeling of a genuine closeness to the Savior snuck up on me quietly as we sang "Nearer, My God to Thee" on the pathway ascending to the temple that Jesus loved.

I'm not the only one who loved the place. When Neil Armstrong visited the Holy Land, he asked his Jewish guide to take him to a place where Christ surely would have been. His guide led him to these same stairs that lead to the Huldah Gates, near hundreds of mikvahs (ritual immersion baths) on the way to Herod's temple. Armstrong stopped and prayed, and when he had finished praying he commented to his guide that standing there meant more to him than it did to stand on the moon.