is Jesus there?

The view from our backyard at the Ballwein Haus Pension,
where we stayed on Moostrasse in Salzburg.

 Yesterday was our trip to Berchtesgaden, and Hitler's retreat center up in the mountains.  The beauty of the bus trip up, with incredible alpine views and quaint Bavarian villages, was a stark contrast to walking through Hitler's underground bunker.  We stopped at the end of one tunnel and stared down into a deep shaft that Nazi workers had carved deep into the mountain, and could only then grasp that there were miles of these passages, some which are still unexcavated.

An overcast day at Hitler's mountain retreat,
the Dokumentation Center at Obersalzburg.

Things lightened up after an exhilarating bus ride down the mountainside (memories of the Virgin Islands came back to me).


The bus and train station at Berchtesgaden.

We got to the bus station and just as we were wondering when the last bus for Salzburg was coming, a young man with a turban and a big full beard came over to us and told us it would arrive in 20 minutes.  Well, we were a little startled, but then had a good laugh, saying that he looked a lot like Jesus, and maybe he was Jesus, and after all, he came with good news and a prophecy of the future.  Then when he got on the bus, we smiled and said we'd better do the right thing and follow Jesus.  But there was more truth in our words than we knew, for even up in that remote mountain retreat where so many horrible plans were made, Jesus was with us today, as he has been for all our trip.  How has Jesus been with YOU today?