“Now THAT must have been…interesting…???”

“Now THAT must have been…interesting…???” This was the response from the Messianic Jew receptionist this evening when she asked where I’d been traveling. “Oh, I lived in Bethlehem for about 6 weeks.” You should have seen her face. It was a mixture of confusion, concern and utter amazement. “Now THAT must have been…interesting…???” I replied, “It was – it was very good – I lived with a Palestinian family.” Again, I got the look. She replied with (what is a beautiful classic line), “Believers in JEEEESUS, right?” I replied, “Yes.” To which she replied, “Well, that makes ALL the difference.” [Here, I knew what she was implying, so I played that out a little bit].

“Well, actually, some of our group stayed with Muslim families. They had really great experiences too.” I got the look again. “Oh, well…wow. I wonder how different those cultures are from each other.” [Here Adam stops and thinks, “Well, they’re all Palestinian, so…”] I responded, “Well, actually – the cultures are basically the same – I mean, they’re all Palestinians.”

She thought for a second, replied with “Very interesting…” and then asked my friend where she had been traveling and living.

I’m not sure if my favorite part of that conversation was her assumption that Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims have drastically different cultures…or if it was simply hearing her say “JEEEESUS.” I liked that part. And I walked out, not mad, not really even that irritated (although, if I thought about it enough, I’m sure I would have reason to be…), but instead…I just laughed, and thought to myself, “Well…now THAT was interesting.”

PS: A note this morning after breakfast. This most surely is a very ‘odd’ place that I’m at. My morning conversation included such wonderful words like prophecy, end-times, born-again, true believers, intercession and “urgency” of this situation. One man said that he heard there were such a thing as Palestinian Christians, but then someone told them that they weren’t “born-agains” anyway. I tried to find a way to tell him that I wouldn’t call myself a born-again either, but…instead I finished my breakfast and left. Such a strange place…