I am of the belief that there are places in our lives that are holy, filled with the memory of what God has done for us. Most are particular to us as individuals.
There is a place on Interstate 15 in Southern California that has special meaning for my wife and I. We were traveling to a little town in the High Desert to see if it was God’s will that we should start a church there. On the way we suffered a flat. As I stepped out of the car I was buffeted by a seventy mile per hour wind. We had seen several semi-trucks toppled over in the wind, and the driving had been dicey. I had the car about halfway lifted on the jack when a gust of wind tipped the car back, and it started to tip over. I did something foolish. I placed my self under the bumper because, in my arrogance, I thought I could stop the fall of the car, and lift it back up. All I did was stop it from falling, but I couldn’t move it back on the jack. I was stuck. It was only then that I cried out, “God, help me!” I imagined that I would receive strength like Sampson, but instead a small, tiny, crippled man pulled over an old dingy semi and popped out of it. He had a hard time walking to where we were at, but when he finally got there, he spoke calmly and assured me. Then he put two rocks under the wheels, and I lowered and resituated the jack. After I got the car lifted, I looked up, and the man and his truck was gone, no where to be seen. My wife and I believe that God had sent one of His angels to help us. I have driven by that spot many times since, and every time I do, I give thanks for his help in times of trouble. It is a holy spot on the side of the road for us, a place where God met us and answered our prayer. In the end, we did start that church, and remained in the High Desert for thirty-two years working with that congregation.
There are a handful of other places in my life that are imbued with His holiness due to what God had done there. No one else sees them as holy, but every time I return to one, I am reminded what God did there in that place.
I have also noticed that a people may have a shared sense of holiness in a place where either God has done something wonderful, or that people had experienced great loss. The memorial of 9/11 in lower Manhattan is like that. While I was there I felt a great shared solemness that I had rarely felt before. I felt the need to pray and to be silent.
Psalm forty-eight speaks of such a place for all of God’s children, that is Zion or Jerusalem. This was where the holy presence of God, YHWH, dwelt. As pilgrims would enter Jerusalem during one of the great feasts of the year, they would sing this psalm even as they entered and took in this blessed city. They would see its beauty, and reflect on its greatness. They would know that all that they saw was a reflection of God’s presence and glory.
“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.”
They would remember that once, the Kings that were around Zion, came against her, to overthrow her…. But these same men came and saw that God was with the city, so they fell into fear and overcome. This is the heritage of God’s Holy City, and as the pilgrims would approach her and come within her, they would worship God for what they saw and what God had done for them.
We may not today travel to Jerusalem, but there are places where we can come again, and remember and reflect on what God did, and praise Him for the glory in it. Do you know of such a place?… For you or for us?… If so, could you not take a time to travel there, for the express purpose of remembering and praising God in that place? Make a pilgrimage for the expressed reason of praising God for what he has done.
There is a possibility that you may not be able to think of a holy place in your life, and if that is you, I offer this suggestion. Gather a couple of Christian friends, or maybe your spouse, and choose a place together to venture to. Consecrate the place with your prayer and petitions, and spend time praising God together and by yourself. Make a place holy with your prayers. To do this will lead you to a place where the beauty of the Lord and His majesty will come to you.
Find your place! Remember your place!