September 18, 2002

Cedars of Bcharre

While we were in Lebanon, JZ and I spent an afternoon walking through "Arz Arrab", God's Cedars. These trees are the ones that Solomon used to build his temple. The Egyptians liked these trees too. They thought that these cedars were the sacred wood of the gods. Pretty impressive. Still standing after all these years. I read that the oldest ones have been around about 1,500 years. But there aren't many of them left, since most were cut from these high hills long ago. I'd estimated that the entire forest was only 25 acres. But there were a lot of wood items available for sale along the edge of the grove of trees. I hope all of that stuff didn't come from a 1,500 year old cedar. "Well, we really hated to cut the old boy down, but heck, those cedar crosses were selling faster than hotcakes!"

JZ thought he should leave something of a remembrance of his visit, so he carved his initials into the trunk of this majestic giant.
(Right beside those of Solomon. )

Cedars of Bcharre.
(And I hope you didn't believe that part about JZ carving his initials into the tree. He has more respect for God's creation than that. But Solomon probably cut down more than his fair share.)