It was stunning…and startling.
- Ron Cantor
- 56 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Shabbat Shalom!
About a month ago, Elana and I were in the south in Israel. Everything was blooming.
It was stunning…and startling.
I put this video together to explain what we saw.
On October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israel as the sun rose. At the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, hundreds of young Israelis were murdered. Others were kidnapped, raped, and tortured. What began as a celebration of life became a place of unspeakable horror.
For two years, this field felt different. Locals spoke of how the red anemones and other winter flowers that usually bloom here did not return in the same way. Whether because the soil had been trampled, military activity, a lack of rain, or for reasons harder to explain, it felt as if the earth itself was mourning. The Bible says that creation itself groans, awaiting redemption.
But this year, the flowers have returned — anemones, wild mustard, Persian buttercups, and delicate red poppies — as if the land itself refuses to surrender its beauty to terror.
My wife, Elana, and I visited on Tu BiShvat — the New Year for Trees — a day that celebrates life and renewal in the land of Israel.
Believers in Yeshua trust that death is not the end; even amid fear, life returns. Anemones bloom once more.
Now this place has become a memorial. People come from across Israel and around the world to remember, to grieve, and to quietly pray among the flowers.
