There are three most famous places in Palestine. The first is the place where Christ was born, the second isthe place where Christ lived, and the third is the place where Christ died.

Christ was born in Bethlehem, which is a dirty little village, not at all like the heavenly place with angels hovering over it that you see in pictures and on Christmas cards. Christ’s father and mother were traveling and happened to stop in Bethlehem over night when Christ was born. A church was built over the place where Christ was supposed to have been born, and a silver star is in the floor to mark the exact spot." The factis that no one knows "the exact spot," but we do know that the church over the supposed spot is the oldest church in the World.

Though Christ was born in Bethlehem, He spent most of His early life in another town in Palestine called Nazareth, for Nazareth was His home town and there His father, Joseph, lived and worked. Joseph was a carpenter, and in Nazareth guides point out Joseph’s carpenter shop, the work-bench where Christ worked with the sawand hammer and other tools He used. They also point out the kitchen where Christ’s mother, Mary, cooked themeals for the family. But just as we cannot believe what the guides tell us about the "exact spot" in Bethlehem, so we cannot believe what they tell us about most of the "exact spots" in Nazareth. There is, however, one exact spot which we can believe. That is a well where they say Mary went to get water, and this may actually be the same well, for there never has been any other place in Nazareth where one could get water. Therewas no such thing as running water in each house.