Mars' Hill, as it looks today,
where Paul spoke to the Athenians
While waiting for Timothy and Silas to join him in Athens, Paul explored the city. He was impressed by statues everywhere to Greek gods and goddesses.
When he decided to speak to the Athenians, he addressed them from a high spot called Mars' Hill. There he commented on how scrupulously religious they were. They were so careful to include every god that they even created an idol to the unknown god - just so none would be left out. The King James version of Paul's words, "ye are in all things too superstitious," sounds like a put-down. But actually Paul was complimenting them. A more accurate translation would be, "You are in every way very religious."
When in Athens a few weeks ago, we walked up Mars Hill. It's a huge old rock, big enough for many people to congregate. It's bumpy though, with weathered outcroppings everywhere. Marble perhaps.
Greece has LOTS of marble. The ancients paved their streets with marble, built columns of marble, and created beautiful statues. Marble magnificently adorns modern Greece as well.
On Mars' Hill old gray boulders muscle up just far enough to have become part of the path and people naturally walk on them. Over decades, maybe centuries, the rough exteriors have in some places been worn away. Beneath that surface roughness glows a warm and beautiful marbly orange interior that becomes shinier the more it is polished by countless soles of tourist shoes.
As I bent closer to confirm what I thought I was seeing, that rock became a metaphor for people. I've met a lot of folks who were crusty and bristly on the outside. As we walked into each others lives, and maybe even stepped on each other a bit, lovely color, vibrancy, beauty, and caring surfaced.
It is good to not be fooled by appearances, to cultivate the ability to look past unpromising exteriors to the person within struggling to be valued and appreciated as worthwhile. It sometimes takes a lot of love to be willing to move past surface impressions, but the resulting friendships can be precious.
God saw beneath Paul's tough and determined exterior, to the willing and honest heart, which He shaped and warmed so that a transformed Paul traveled to Asia and Europe to preach a God of Love.
and lifted their lives higher than their
— thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying.”
Mary Baker Eddy
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