Lots of questions come to mind as I read today’s lessons. Just look at the first lesson, for example. The sabbath day? Was this the Jewish Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, or had the early Christians already started celebrating their sabbath on the first day of the week to honor the day of Christ Jesus’ resurrection? Outside the gate? Were they looking for privacy, or security from the authorities or from those who might wish them harm? By the river? Is there some symbolic connection between the river in Philippi and “the river of the water of life” in the second lesson? Did they always look for rivers on their journeys to use for baptism in the event they made converts along the way? A place of prayer? Did they expect to find some type of an organized place of prayer where there could be spiritually oriented people who might be interested in their testimony as Paul found at the Areopagus (Acts 17:22), or were they hoping to find a suitable place for their own sabbath worship? The women gathered there? Why were they together? What were they doing there—laundry, bathing, visiting, praying? Why were they outside the city walls? Lydia’s household? Was her whole household with her that day? Were they all women? Were they using the river water for their cloth dying operations? And on and on, the brain can take us down one path and then another.

None of those questions—or their answers—matter. They are all head questions, derailing our attention from the heart. We encounter the Divine in relationships, not in analysis. Look at Lydia’s example: she was, in her own way, a worshipper of God; her heart was open; she listened eagerly to the evangelist God sent to her; she was baptized into the fellowship of Christ Jesus; she welcomed Paul and his companions into her home. Her story is all about being open to the opportunities God presents, paying attention and following through in love. Can we follow her example, letting go of our analytical pastimes, trusting our questions to the mystery of God?