I'm Just Wondering...

Four years ago in late December of 2005, I returned home from Jerusalem. I can still see the faces of my daughter and grandchildren as they greeted me at the Denver airport. It had only been five months, but it seemed like many years that I was away! I remember also my deeply mixed emotions: I was so happy to back in the bosom of my family, with my feet on American soil, yet I knew that I knew that I had left my true home and had come back to what is really my place of exile. My heart has been yearning to return ever since!

A few days after I got back home I watched pictures of then-Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, being transported by ambulance to a Jerusalem hospital, following a severe stroke. In those moments of watching the ambulance whizzing through the streets of Jerusalem, a scripture came strongly to my mind, written by the apostle Shaul (Paul) in Galatians 1:11-12, 15-17: "I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather I received it by revelation from Yeshua haMashiach. But when YHVH, who set me apart from birth, and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia..."

Where was this "Arabia" Shaul visited and why did he go there? It seems to me that the trip to Arabia was a trip into the desert wilderness, similar to that of Moses, John the Immerser, Yeshua, and others, for preparation time for his future ministry. Where in Arabia did he go? That is not given to us in Scripture, probably because it was irrelevant. In the Scripture above Shaul is strongly making the point that in his wilderness time he received all the revelation he needed - directly from Yeshua and not from any man. It was his God-given time to be alone with the Master and learn everything he needed to know to endure suffering, hold fast to his faith, understand the full redemptive plan of YHVH through Yeshua the Messiah, and complete his assigned ministry among the Gentiles.

So, why did I contemplate all this while watching Ariel Sharon's hospital-bound ambulance? Is it possible that for these past four years Sharon has been in his own personal "Arabia" with Yeshua? Could it be that he will awaken from this coma (despite doctors' opinions) and have all the revelation he needs to awaken the Jewish people to the Truth - not having received it from any man, but from Yeshua Himself? Is Ariel Sharon being prepared for a last-days ministry to the Jews, as Shaul was prepared to preach to the Gentiles?

I don't know. I'm just wondering. But I did find it interesting that the very FIRST tiny article about Sharon appeared in a Jerusalem newspaper this week. He has been all but forgotten by the world; yet this week a tiny little reminder appeared:

Sharon in coma for 4 years
January 4, 2010
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Ariel Sharon's family and friends marked the fourth anniversary of the former prime minister's massive stroke. Sharon, now 81, has never regained consciousness from the Jan. 4, 2006 stroke. He remains in a coma, though he is breathing on his own. He lives in a long-term care facility in Ra'anana. Family and friends visit frequently, according to reports.
Sharon, who was elected prime minister as head of the Likud Party in 2001, suffered the stroke several months after overseeing Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. He formed the new centrist Kadima Party to run in the country's 2006 elections.
Medical experts say it is unlikely that Sharon will come out of the coma.