There is a lot of struggling going on in the world and in our communities today. A lot has gone on over the past year to be negative and pessimistic over. There are a lot of reasons why someone could look at things and say, “I wished we lived X number of years ago. Certainly, times were easier and simpler then.”

When we start to think along those lines, it’s time to start counting our blessings. They get so easily overlooked as we rush around.

We take blessings for granted because it is the negative things and experiences that rock our world. We take much more time to lament our car breaking down than we do to rejoice each time it starts. We get upset when our hot water heater goes out but seldom do we celebrate it to the same degree each time it works.

In our lives, the negative tends to drown out the positive. Let’s take time then to celebrate something we take for granted: archaeology!

When is the last time you stopped and thought, “what a blessing it is to live in a time of such amazing archaeology!” It’s simply not something that is on our radar but it should be.

The past 150 years have dramatically improved what we know of the time periods of the Bible and the cultures that existed at those times. An incredible number of ancient cities have been discovered, and artifacts found that corroborate what the Bible depicts and teaches.

As Christians, we live by faith, but it is incredibly exciting to see archaeologists find things the way the Bible depicts them where the Bible says they were located. Evidence that even by secular standards shows that the Bible accounts are not only possible but likely to have happened as they are written.

One biblical account that can be difficult for people to believe comes at the end of the account of Samson. The Bible says that after Samson had given up his secret to Delilah and was betrayed, having both of his eyes gouged out, he called upon the Lord for one more gifting of amazing strength so he could topple the temple of Dagon over with his bare hands.

Judges 16:28-30 recounts, “Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

Then Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, the one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!”

And he pushed outward powerfully, so that the house fell on the governors and all the people who were in it. And the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his lifetime.”

The Bible says that this one man toppled over an entire temple with his bare hands by pushing over two pillars! An incredible feat of strength that can be tough to believe without faith in the Bible.

That is until archaeology recently uncovered a number of Philistine temples revealing a common floor plan. A floor plan consisting of a rectangular building with a roof held up by two central pillars roughly 6.5 feet apart. Each pillar rested on top of a stone slab, secure under normal circumstances but not impossible to be dislocated with enough force!

It’s pretty awesome seeing archaeology corroborating this account in Samson.

We are certainly blessed to live at a point of history with such a growing understanding of the biblical times!

People’s EC Church is located at 216 Wagner St., Lehighton.