God Works in Mysterious Ways His Wonders to Perform

Our family, my husband and I, our two grown daughters and our son-in-law, last month aligned all our schedules and made a trip to Europe. God’s intervention was evident in accomplishing the coordination of all the schedules, jobs, flights allowing us to converge in Rome. It was the trip of our lifetime, enriching, inspiring, educational; I felt I was a participant in a virtual history lesson.  It is no wonder Paul was compelled to end his missionary journeys in Rome. God is now worshiped in the hundreds of churches in Rome. Christianity spread in Italy and the entire Roman Empire from the influence Paul initiated despite the persecution he experienced, and as followed for thousands of Christians after his death. The Coliseum is now a memorial to the Christians who died there.  The catacombs, tombs of the Christians, are a testament to their perseverance through adversity. The magnificent churches welcome visitors of all faiths to stop and pray in their quiet, beautiful, artistic settings. 

We went on a walking tour the day we all arrived in Rome; included were the Pantheon (a 2000 year old temple now used as a church), the Spanish steps, the Trevi Fountain, several large piazzas (city squares for large gatherings-not usually square but elliptical); all well known “tourist attractions”.   We took a wrong turn along the way, after the Pantheon and before the Trevi fountain, but found ourselves before a large door in an imposing façade.  Dennis, our son-in-law, noted people going in and out, and peeked inside. He said “I think we should go in and see this building, it is a church”. We didn’t know what church it was, there was no sign indicating the name, the “times of services” or any officiant’s name, nothing that seemed welcoming to U.S. visitors to Italy. We all followed Dennis and were immediately transported back in time. The building was a work of art with beautiful frescos on the ceilings, paintings and sculptures along the walls; it was awe inspiring and we were glad we had detoured from our mapped route.  We never did find the name of the church anywhere inside while we were there.  I later performed an internet search of an inscription on a sculpture inside the church from one of our photos. The inscription search led to an old document referencing the same sculpture as one located inside the “Church of Sant Ignazio di Loyola”, built in 1650. The pictures of that church matched all the photos we had taken inside.  I had located the correct church building among the 900 churches of Rome.

Early the next morning, we got up to “run” for exercise. The youngsters run, but I walk fast, and they were tolerant of my pace. The view of Rome at 6:00 a.m. is much different than it is on an afternoon walking tour. We did the same tour in a third of the time since people of Rome sleep much later than 6:00 a.m.  The City of Rome with its sculptures, bridges, ancient castles and buildings, church domes, and the Tiber River was spectacularly beautiful in the light of dawn.  We also stumbled across the Coliseum and the Roman Forum we had not seen the previous day. Paul may have stood right there in the Forum and preached from steps of a temple. I could visualize Paul speaking in Rome of the one true God as compared to the “Unknown god” similarly to his speech in Athens, Greece:

Acts 17:22-28

²² Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. ²³ For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

²⁴ “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. ²⁵ And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. ²⁶ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Men have striven through the ages to show their dedication to God through their gifts of art and beauty endowed inside the magnificent church buildings. We may certainly enjoy their efforts of the past that have stood through wars and earthquakes. God is not living in the spectacular church buildings in Rome.  He lives in our hearts if we allow him to do so. We may shine like the burnished gold ornaments, the paintings and mosaics that captured my attention. We may draw others to Christ as we spread the good news like Paul, in Rome.

Dear God, Help me to be an instrument that shines like gold, and attracts others to “The Way” through “The Word”.

Sherilyn Svien

Stephenville, TX