Lavender Lydia
Acts 16:11-15
The Conversion of Lydia
We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.
The sky was a lovely shade of lavender early one morning as we drove over the bridge into Brownsburg. Jump stood tall in all her glory, her summit peaked in burnt orange, blending into deep blue. I wondered to myself, as I often do, has there ever been anything so lovely as a mountain sunrise?
The color, lavender, stuck with me throughout that day, as I was beginning to brainstorm ideas for our recent session planning meeting. The sky was lavender, you see, because there was a weather system moving in—the beautiful colors were present only because it was cloudy—a storm was coming. As I pondered leaders that show up in the scriptures, a woman named Lydia came to mind.
Lydia was an interesting character for several reasons. First, she was not originally from Philippi, but from Thyatira. My guess is that she had migrated south to the city with a large port, because she was, in fact, a businesswoman. We are told she was a dealer in purple cloth, the most expensive in those days. She was a woman of financial means and would have been a member of a prominent guild in the community. Even more fascinating, she was a “God-fearer”…she didn’t worship Roman gods, but rather worshipped the God of Israel. She was in so many ways an outsider.
She was open to hearing Paul’s message. In fact, as was the case with many people of wealth, she was baptized with the rest of her household—in some way erasing the rules of class that stood between them. She then practiced her first act of faith by showering hospitality upon them.
What strikes me is that Lydia’s life sounds like she had it all, great wealth, independence, success. But I suspect that it was beautiful because there had been many storms in her life. I suspect she was widowed, only inheriting her business because there were no men in her family to take on the work. She had no doubt experienced grief and loss. Why was she in prayer by the river instead of within the city walls? She was an outsider in her faith, too. I suspect it wasn’t easy being a woman in a man’s world and she found it easier to retreat. The beautiful lavender hues in her life were not without clouds and shadows. Thus, is life, but we too can trust in the grace of God by our savior, the ruler who, by earthly standards would have been wrapped in that luxurious purple cloth. May you find ways to be a leader of the faith in your own right, standing tall on the thin shore between the waters of baptism and the walls that human brokenness builds. Witness to the faith, in all its colors.