Garden of Gethsemane

After we left the Mount of Olives, we walked down the Palm Sunday path that Jesus took as he arrived into Jerusalem, and headed to the Garden of Gethsemane. It is located at the base of the Mount of Olives, so we did not have a far walk at all.

Garden of Gethsemane means "garden of the wine press" and is a beautiful area with lots of ancient olive trees. There is a debate on exactly how old these trees exactly are...the botanists say they are 3,000 years old, while others say that cannot be true because Josephus, the historian, recorded that Titus cut all of the trees down in Jerusalem in 70AD. So who knows? Either way, they are definitely old. Enough about trees.

More importantly, this is the place that Jesus often came to pray...especially on the night of his betrayal. It was a quite humbling and emotional experience to say the least. What made it even more special was hearing my 20 month old repeatedly sing "Amazing Grace" while we were walking through the garden. He knows every word (to a few verses actually), and no, I didn't prompt him to sing this-he did it all on his own. Words cannot express how grateful I am that Jesus died to "save a wretch like me." I pray I never take His love and grace for granted. Thank you Jesus!

As we continued walking through the Garden of Gethsemane, we came to The Church of All Nations which was built in 1924. Inside is the traditional Rock of Agony where Jesus was said to have prayed.

After we left the garden, we walked right across the Palm Sunday path to a private garden for some time of scripture reading, praise, and prayer.

My sweet prayer partner. Oh how I pray for Micah's salvation one day!

As we left the garden area, we walked down to the bottom of the Mount of Olives. Here we were able to get a few good pictures of the cemetery that is located near the bottom of the mount.