Happy Returns
In the summer of 2018 our family joined some close friends on a tour of Israel. My wife Faye and I had visited the country before and were thrilled to be returning, especially in the company of our sons.
After a few days in Galilee and then the Dead Sea, we arrived in the Holy City of Jerusalem just as a Sabbath evening was commencing. While most of our group showered and rested after the hot day, I set off on foot toward the Old City. I remembered the path to my destination. In fact it drew me like a magnet.
Weaving through throngs of tourists and pilgrims, I soon reached the site I had long dreamed of revisiting – the Kotel.
Location, Location, Location
The Kotel, the famed Western Wall (or Wailing Wall), is the spot that once held the Second Temple, the Temple visited by Jesus, as referenced repeatedly in the New Testament.
The Temple building was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, as Jesus himself prophesied in Luke 21:6. But the temple mount, the enormous stone box that the temple stood on, remains to this day. The Kotel is a portion of the western side of this huge rectangular box.
Its stones are some of the largest ever used by humanity, and experts are still debating how they could have ever been moved there.
Prayers and Papers
I covered my head, as required, and approached the awesome sight. Around me, devout Jewish people chanted prayers, rocking rhythmically in the intensity of their petitions. Some placed pieces of paper into the chinks between the stones – a common practice in which pilgrims leave written requests at the site that is considered holy and close to God.
I stood still before the wall, intense in my own prayers, but numb in my mind. From my pocket I drew some slips of paper. Most contained just a single word, usually a name. I figured God could interpret my shorthand.
Ethan
The first read “Ethan,” in a handwriting that was not my own. Ethan Grimes was a patient of mine who had been gravely sick for months. I had tried desperately to heal him as he endured agonizing pain, constant nausea, and horrific bleeding. I feared he was not going to make it.
As I inserted Ethan’s slip of paper into a gap and lifted him up to God, my mind went back to his most recent appointment, just days before I left on vacation.
Feeling helpless in my medical inadequacy and fearing that I might never see him again, I had asked Ethan to write his name on a small square of paper. He paused, but then understanding dawned, and his weary eyes suddenly shone. He was aware that I was ready to depart for Israel.
“I know what you are doing,” he cried out. “You are going to put my name in that wall!”
God answered that request. Ethan has recovered and is doing well, back at his favorite past time of going on cruises.
Michael
The next strip contained the name “Michael.” My friend Michael Lyons (I am using his real name with permission; he is not a patient of mine) was dying of a brain tumor. A few weeks before, over a cup of tea, he had asked a profound question of me.
“How do you spend your time when you are waiting to die?”
I had no answer for such a weighty question. I merely wrote his name on a square of paper. God has not answered Michael’s aching question. But he has answered our prayers. Michael is still alive several years later and has no signs of any progression.
A Weary Query
The next few slips were for various friends and family members, especially my wife and my sons.
The last scrap of paper had no word on it, just a single character:
?
That was for me. That symbolized the unanswered question that hung over my life at that moment. Suffering from burn out, I was agonizing over career direction.
Feeling as torn and disconnected as the paper scrap, I pled with God to restore my emotional and mental reserves and give me guidance.
“Help me, brother,” I called out to Jesus. I knew that he had literally been at this site and had seen these very stones. I also knew in my heart that he was there with me then. Still I could not feel his presence.
I crammed the fragment of paper into the empty space between ancient stones. My paper and my prayer joined countless others from ages past. I wept, but no tears came. I felt as hard and old as the wall in front of me.
Every Instant and Inch Is Holy
I truly know that God does not hear us more in one spot than anywhere else. He is the Lord of all places.
“The earth is the LORD’S, and everything in it” (Psalm 24:1).
Since what happened in Bethlehem two thousand years ago, every inch of creation is sacred. God sees us in the depths of the sea, in the wilderness, in church, or on a mountaintop. He does not need special notes, locations, or prayers to understand and hear us.
I also genuinely believe that the only revelation from God we can put our confidence in is found in the Bible. Experiences and feelings are simply not reliable. The Bible is. Over the next few months I am going to emphasize and illustrate this.
But I am still going to tell you what happened next, after I left the Western Wall.
Do you remember Harry? He is my patient who had the near death experience and reported a conversation with God that included this message for me:
“You are to do exactly what you are doing.”
At the wall that day I was still wrestling with what that recent message meant, if anything. I trudged back to my hotel in a daze. Turning from the street to enter the building, I passed right by a large window in the restaurant next door. At the last minute I looked up, and there before me were big, bright pink words.
This is a photo of what I saw:
On the Move – and Unmoved – in Our Faith
None of us needs to stay where we are. We all need to constantly turn away from our sin and move in repentance and faith toward God.
We all need to grow. To do so, our hearts must constantly change. Sometimes we may need to alter the situations in our lives, as well. We may need to relocate, shift our schedules and patterns, switch jobs, or take chances.
But in another sense – in the sense that God is in control of all things, that he is sovereign over all and has a perfect plan that he will faithfully carry out – we are exactly where we are supposed to be. A providential God has appointed our times and places. He uses the pleasant and the painful for his wise purposes, and every challenge presents a faith opportunity. Of course, his sovereignty does not give us license to be spiritually indolent, lazy, or deliberately sinful. We must be always on the move – and yet unmoved – in our faith.
The Proper Focus
I think I came to the wall to seek a message about myself. But God did not send me a message about me. He sent something better. It was a message for me…but it was a message about him.
God is in control of everything. He promises to work all things together for good for those who love him (Romans 8:28). He promises to never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
More precious than any message about us is this message about the unchanging God. We often need to shift our situation (and in fact, I have changed a lot in my life since that bright neon vision). But in God’s economy you and I are exactly where we need to be.
Because he is exactly who he is
!