Faith Venture

In the land where I grew up the oldest human structures dated from the 1790s. AD. Or CE if you are an historian.

We have just returned from a couple of weeks touring the western edge of Turkey (Turkiye) and  the east of Greece. Once all Greece. Of course then Roman, Ottoman Muslim, then independent.

We visited Ephesus. The Apostle Paul walked those same marble streets that we just did. As did the Apostle John who accompanied Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Before travel all of this is theoretical. Just something I read perhaps in the Bible or other history. Perhaps taught in school.

Traveling we stood right there. We could see marble structures that were there more than 2,000 years ago. This is where history was made. This is where Paul spoke about one true God. Where the economic livelihood of many depended on selling silver trinkets to religious tourists to the Temple of Artemis. Where they led a riot to the auditorium trying to capture and kill him.

And where John brought Mary to escape the ravages of Jerusalem. Where John also spoke of the one God, also threatening the livelihood of the silversmiths. When he agreed to leave town to go to the island of Patmos, he provided a house for Mary out of town on the mountainside to offer a measure of protection from the mobs.

Here is a photo of her house and one of the streets of Ephesus.

My point is to encourage travel. Burst out from your preconceived ideas. Experience the world and other people.

This entry was posted on February 5, 2024 at 11:00 am and is filed under Awareness, Disciplines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.