Can a place change you?
Yes.

Moses was changed on the mountain, Paul on the road to Damascus, and Esther in the palace.

Anne Lamott wrote that she staggered to faith from one safe place to another. My places weren’t always safe. Some were dark and scary. Safe or not, they all changed me. Moments happened in those places that opened my eyes and my heart. To something wonderful. Sometimes to something terrible. I felt deeply, was moved deeply…….and was changed.

My home, workplace, the gym. I’ve been changed here.
My church. A place I am known and loved and encouraged and challenged. Changed there.

Alone hiking in the forest, I am changed. The limestone rock walls, the melting icicles, the beech trees. The beauty and the smells and the quiet change me.

The beach is one of my places. My friends and family, the sand and the ocean, the shells, the food, the awayness of it all. Every year I am changed there.

It’s not really the place….it’s who is there or Who is there. It’s God in the place. It’s the people in the place. It’s God in the people in the place.

He was there. He is here. He will be there. Always.

“…….for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you, nor forsake you.”
Deuteronomy 31: 6b