Musing in the Footsteps of Jesus

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
The wilderness of Judea lay northwest of the Dead Sea and due west of Jericho. It was a desolate wasteland of barren mountains and plateaus making it the most dangerous region in all of Palestine. The desert floor was of limestone, with only a thin layer of sand and salt deposit. The only vegetation that could take root in this shallow surface was a low desert shrub, a flat grass with thorns, and moss on rocks. No water was available even in the rainy season because the limestone absorbed the liquid life into the ground.
      During the day, the sun heated the parched floor to unbearable furnace-like temperatures, while at night the cold wind blowing through the mountain passes chilled the feeble into an endless sleep. Here only the heartiest of insects, birds, wild animals, and humans were able to survive. Caravans went miles out of their way to avoid passing through this foreboding land. Many travelers believed the ominous myth that the giant statues of prehistoric animals, carved out of the limestone cliffs by the relentless winds and turbulent flash floods, came alive at dusk.
      Then there were true stories of brave souls who dared enter this habitat of man-eating animals and disappeared, except for, in some cases, their skeletal remains. Therefore, the range earned the name the Wilderness of No Return, and rightfully hosted the most extraordinary confrontation in the annals of humankind.
      It all started on a normal day like any other with the big fireball rising and chasing the cool air away. By noon, the fire in the sky was punishing the inhabitants below, but the natives were ignoring the heat, intent on going about their daily routine. Two scorpions danced victoriously around a hot flint stone and then pulled a dead spider down into their hole. A rock hyrax playfully tumbled off a ledge and fell into a hole that his two siblings were digging. Near-by, an adult leopard whetted her appetite by watching their fat, little bodies frolic in the sand. Then suddenly, a graceful ibex leaped in the air from a precipice high above before landing upright and unharmed on the baked floor below. Then the ibex looked up with a smile at a pack of panting jackals in hot pursuit as they slid to a stop at the very edge of the cliff. Looking down at the ibex, with their tongues dragging the ground, the jackals howled out their frustrations.
      At this precise moment, the supernatural altered the natural laws of life as an impassioned voice as clear and penetrating as a brass horn thundered loudly out of the eastern sky and echoed in the ears below. The animals instantly froze like statues in their physical positions. The leopard now with the prey in her jaws became passive and gently set the hyrax down. The rock hyrax showing no fear now remained there by the big cat to hear more of the voice.
      The wind reined in the clouds and held its breath that all of nature might listen. In this surrealistic moment where heartbeats made the only sounds it seemed that even time knelt down and took pause. The creatures, with ears pricked high, strained to hear more of the strangely familiar voice now reverberating in the eastern sky. Although the animals could not understand the meaning of the words, still the sounds they heard gave each a feeling of well-being, unity, and peace. All knew intuitively that the sounds were emanating from the very source of life. The resounding words that filled the valleys and peaks formed one simple sentence, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”