If things had gone according to plan, this morning I would be waking up near Istanbul. Instead I am solidly trundled along the Texas Gulf Coast, where I’ve lived most of my life. Because plans change.
I am not walking the sites of the ancient churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicia. (I am not walking much at all.) I am working at healing an ailing, presently uncooperative body through strong chemicals and inordinate amounts of rest—neither of which I tolerate well.
But a tiny part of me is where I’d hoped to be.
Days before the group I would have joined departed, I stood in a dear friend’s doorway, holding a tiny olive wood cross in my palm. “Would you carry this with you for me?” I asked her. She said she would.
I hesitated. “And would you leave it somewhere along the way?”
“Where?” she asked.
“Wherever the Holy Spirit leads you,” I told her. I couldn’t imagine where.
Several days into the trip I didn’t make, I received the photo in this post. It came with a message:
“Today, Philadelphia was our first stop. Our guide emphasized the importance of the pillar as a promise. In a land frequented by earthquakes, when a pillar remains, it echoes of structural integrity and divine protection. You have persevered time and again. Even though everything around you shakes, may the promise of Christ be true: you are a pillar, never being moved, written with the name of God.”
I ugly cried. And rejoiced.
Because plans change…His promises hold…and pillars remain.
“Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name.” (Revelation 3: 10 - 12, NLT)
So sorry you were not able to make this trip, Leigh. And I'm trusting that you one day will. The Lord is so near to you.
What beautiful verses in Revelation! Thank you for your moving and powerful words. I’m praying for you, Leigh.