Chanukah Dreidels & Christmas Dirt

“I NEVER GREW UP GIVING MUCH REVERENCE TO PLACES AND ICONS; BUT FOR SOME REASON I FOUND MY KNEES WEAK.“ It was the third day of Chanukah and I was in Israel for the very first time standing in the city of Nazareth. We had made our way past the shopkeepers and traffic lined streets to the Church of the Annunciation, which sits in the side of the hill of the city. The church was supposedly built on the spot where Mary was visited by the angel announcing her as the highly favored woman to give birth to Jesus Christ.

“Emmanuel: God with us.” In that spot I understood the power in that statement—the power in that name.

Under the church you can see the excavated remains of the old city…soon I began to imagine Jesus as a little boy as he grew spent his day helping Joseph in the carpentry shop, learning at Synagogue and playing in the streets. Even then, I wonder when or if his mother had informed him of his weighty “Savior of the World” title.

Our guide from the Israel Ministry of Tourism, Tzion Ben David, took time to explain to the journalists on our tour some of the symbols and traditions connected with Chanukah in the place where it all began.—a true an immersion experience. I learned that in the celebration of Chanukah the Jewish people have a saying “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham.”

The phrase translates, “A great miracle happened there.” An acronym of this is inscribed on the dreidel game, (but changed to say “a great miracle happened here.”). Because the Greek-Syrians outlawed Jews from learning the Torah, the Jews used the game to hide their studies.

Chanukah commemorates the great miracle of one day of oil light in the Golden Menorah lasting for eight days which gave light to the Jewish people who were in the middle of a heated battle with the Greeks. On the eighth day the Jews defeated their great foe. As I sailed across the Sea of Galilee, walked the streets of Capernaum, and ran my hand across the the temple steps it all came together: this wasn’t an isolated incident for God’s chosen people.

From Nazareth to Bethlehem, to the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, all the way to Jerusalem to the most distant reaches of the holiest of lands—every rock had a miraculous story of provision and triumph to tell. The greatest miracle that ever was is represented in 10,840 square miles of the globe—a bit larger than the state of Maryland. A little bit larger space than the average size driedel, but it packs a load of meaning all the same. “A great miracle happened here.”

Those words came to remembrance two days later as I stood in Jerusalem at the Garden Tomb. The shakiness crept back in my knees. I realized it wasn’t just one “great miracle” but “the greatest miracle that ever was happened here.” God in flesh stomping out the darkness of death itself.

Within the mix of Chanukah driedles and Christmas dirt, my soul bears witness to the greatest miracle that ever happened in the Promised Land. I will walk in reverent obedience, selfless love and set my mission on being proclaiming Christ’s saving grace and love wherever I find my feet.

The greatest miracle of all time happens here...and I got to see it for myself.

AMBER WEIGAND-BUCKLEY EDITOR, LEADING HEARTS MAGAZINE