You don’t need to visit the Holy Land to be a faithful Christian. But few things have stirred my faith and enriched my understanding of Scripture more than a 10-day trip to Israel I did last year. If you have the opportunity to go to Israel in the coming years—perhaps once the pandemic has subsided—I’d encourage you to make this trip a priority.

Whether it was considering Jesus’s march toward Jerusalem as I stood atop the Mount of Olives, reflecting on Cornelius’s vision of Gentile inclusion while in Caesarea (Acts 10), or standing by the Sea of Galilee and reflecting on the resurrected Christ and his forgiveness of Peter, I was repeatedly moved by the earthiness of the biblical events. Ours is a faith birthed in soil, with real people, in real time, in a real place. But these ordinary biblical events are suffused with glory and eternal significance.

As Adam Stewart Brown encourages, our visit to the Holy Land can translate into worship. Whether through reading the Bible, singing hymns and spiritual songs, engaging all five senses, or employing imagination, a trip to the Holy Land can be a great means of spiritual encouragement for pilgrim believers. As we wrap up 2020, planning for this trip isn’t a bad thing.