How far is it to Bethlehem?

To answer the question, just like it says in the song, Bethlehem is not that far. I recognize even more clearly as I find myself only a few miles from that small town. But I think I understand the message that the song tells even more now. To know Jesus and that He was born of Mary, that He lived, and that He died for mankind doesn't take a time machine or a visit to site where he walked and taught. All it takes is a quiet moment when we get on our knees, pray to our Heavenly Father, and then we can know our Savior. It might be the middle of summer, but I love the Christmas season and the thoughts it provokes within me. I love the song "What Child is This?" when the answer comes, "this, this is Christ our King!" Can you imagine being a lowly Shepherd and kneeling at the side of His birth, asking the same question to yourself? Can you think of how it would feel to hear the spirit whisper, "This, this is Christ your King,"? I'd imagine that it feels similar to how I feel now, having tears stream down my face as I picture it.
You probably can tell that I've been thinking about Christ quite a bit lately. We just finished our Old Testament study and are starting up on the New Testament. To begin, they took us to Bethlehem, the City of David. Though it is only a few miles away from here, it is run by the Palestinian Authority. To enter the city, there is a large road block and the infamous separation wall that must be passed through. It was such a stark difference from one side of the wall to the other. The Jewish side has a series of pictures on the wall that say things like, "Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Love and Peace." Then you cross over to the other side and there are a series of ugly paintings on the Palestinian side that cover the wall. One said "Hypocrisy".
The Palestinian side was much more dirty and run down than the Israeli side. It wasn't as bad as Egypt or parts of Jordan, but definitely not as nice as the Jewish parts of the country. We visited a few places in the city, including Bethlehem University and a Palestinian political action group. We heard a great deal from the Palestinian side of the issue here. I feel like we haven't heard that position articulated as well as the Israeli side since coming to Jerusalem. One student we talked to from Bethlehem University told us that though she could see Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque from school, she had never been allowed to go there. They spoke of checkpoints put up by the Israelis that make life difficult and turn small drives by car into day long excursions. It was pretty sad to hear it all. The only thing that bugged me about it was that they seemed to complain a lot about the terrible Israelis, but never once spoke of the Israelis reasons for doing what they do, namely to prohibit terrorists from striking Israel. After spending the morning doing this and then eating lunch at a delicious restaurant, we went to Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity.
The church kind of reminded me of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and also of the Coptic churches we visited in Cairo. The oldest parts of the church where the theoretical place where Christ was born and laid in a manger are all owned by the Greek and Armenian Orthodox Churches. The Catholics have another church built next to it that contains the cave where the Catholic Saint, Jerome, translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. To finish off the trip, we visited a church which has underground caves. In this cave's wall's is a high content of chalk that women who want to get pregnant take and mix with water and then drink. They believe it is the way to "open the womb".
All in all, I enjoyed my trip to Bethlehem and it gave me a new perspective on life here in the Holy Land. But interestingly enough, I've felt the spirit more in pondering upon Christ's birth since then, than when I was actually there. So just as with how I started, how far is it to Bethlehem? Not very far!