June 25–Our Refuge 

Happy Tuesday to you. I hope your week is going well. I worked a long day yesterday and I must have been super tired because I overslept this morning. I was almost as tired as I was when I walked out of Petra, “the city half as old as time.” To enter the city, you walk in from the east down the “siq” which trails through the deep rock crevis for more than a mile. At times is only about 3 ft wide and a little over 300 ft high. 


The path is winds along and you can’t see far ahead or behind, and because you are in this small place where the walls are really high, it can be pretty intimidating. But all of a sudden, rounding the last corner, you see it. The Rose City. It’s buildings are actually carved right into the rock, a pinkish rock. The first building you see takes your breath away. This massive treasury building is 151 feet tall! And it is absolutely beautiful to the point you just want to stare. (And I did for quite some time). 


The city was built somewhere around the 5th Century BC. (Yeah, incredible, right?) you might remember Petra in the Harrison Ford movie, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” Before that movie, not many visited this site, but afterwards, it became a major tourist attraction for Jordan. Petra sits adjacent to “The Valley of Moses”, Wadi Musa, a city with 56 hotels and still building. 


I was astounded that this city made of stone that could be more than 7,000 years old was still very usable. The theater was almost perfect, Columba we’re still standing, inside the buildings, the ceilings were blackened from the Bedouins living there, but they were completely in tact. It made so much sense now why so very many Biblical scholars believe that Petra is the place where the Jewish few will escape. 


“The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭12:14‬ ‭NIV‬‬


Leaving Petra, you can take a cart, ride a horse or even a camel. I chose to walk the path and meditate on the wondrous work that had been done there. How? Was the biggest question. But alas, here it sits in the Valley of Moses-the wilderness-waiting for its inhabitants. I don’t know if that “the place” but it is a miraculous thing that seems to have sprung up in the land of nomads. And as we who know the Living God know, He plans and prepares very well. 


Lord God of Moses, thank you for being deliberate and always having the perfect place prepared for us. You are a great God and you take care of us so very well. Teach us Father to rely on you and to fully trust that you have it under control. We ask you to surround our friends and family who are suffering with sickness and circumstance; be ever close Lord and we pray for your healing touch. You are the Great Physician. Help us Lord to walk in your light and not chase after things of this world. We love you and praise your great Name, for you alone can be our hiding place, our rock, our Petra we run to. Amen and amen. 


Love you dear one, 

Pam

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