The spring of my daughter’s wedding, she asked if we could ride the Virginia Creeper Trail together. We traveled to Damascus, the midpoint of the thirty-five mile trail, rented bikes and chartered a lift to the trailhead seventeen miles up in Whitetop. That first year was perfectly magical! We shared a quaint little room in the Damascus Old Mill Inn and whispered together late into the night like the best of friends. We scarfed down a delicious breakfast and walked over to the bike rental shop. The van ride up was more of a historical tour of the area given by the older gentleman who had obviously lived most of his life in that little hamlet.
Now you need to know, the trail drifts downhill, sometimes at a pace and other times requiring a little pedal power, but the scenery is magnificent, majestic, magical! Sometimes you’re literally riding alongside homes and farms, including an overlook at a local Christmas tree farm. Wide wooden bridges span rushing rivers and cavernous drops as the trail crisscrosses the Appalachian Trail. Campers in tents and tiny houses pop up here and there before the trial lands you back in Damascus.
We loved our first trip and planned to make it an annual mother-daughter retreat. We did for the next two years. I’d like to say we quit with the birth of my grandson, but he didn’t come along for a couple more years. Since my daughter was an elementary teacher, we made our subsequent trips during her spring break. The first year back, we rode the seventeen miles downhill in the rain. We laughed it off as bad luck and went back the next year to ride in ice, snow, and freezing rain. We should have tapped out when we were the only two on the ride up the mountain but we were dressed in our warm layers and determined to make the most of it.
The apostle Paul also had a story to tell after his trip to Damascus, and he spent the rest of his life sharing it. He was a man on a mission. He’d had success in Jerusalem, by his own admission. With his self-righteous heart full of hatred and a head of steam, he left for Damascus to inflict as much damage as possible there as well.
“I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.
Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem.
Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison.
And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death.
Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus.
I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities.
One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests.
About noon, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions.
We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,
‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
It is useless for you to fight against my will.’”
Acts of the Apostles 26:9-14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.26.9-14.NLT
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one!
Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind.
So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus.”
Acts of the Apostles 9:5-8 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.9.5-8.NLT
Stopped in his tracks, Saul waited, helpless, for what? Who would come to his aid? Couldn’t he simply be faking, waiting for the believers to reveal themselves? Thank God for His faithful followers, people like Ananias and Barnabas, (Acts 9:26-27) believers who trust God more than they fear man. (Hebrews 13:6) Thank God that He has a divine purpose for every person who lives.
Like Saul, “once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.
You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world.
He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.
By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead.
(It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”
Ephesians 2:1-5, 9-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.2.1-10.NLT
Paul sat blinded for three days and nights until God sent Ananias, a local believer, to pronounce His prophetic message and healing over Saul.
“Now there was a believer in Damascus named Ananias.
The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord!” he replied.
The Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street, to the house of Judas. When you get there, ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is praying to me right now. I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying hands on him so he can see again.”
“But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I’ve heard many people talk about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! And he is authorized by the leading priests to arrest everyone who calls upon your name.”
But the Lord said, “Go, for Saul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the Gentiles and to kings, as well as to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
So Ananias went and found Saul.
He laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Instantly something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was baptized.”
Acts of the Apostles 9:10-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.9.10-18.NLT
Where would Paul be without the faith of Ananias? More than that, where would Paul be without the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, Son of God? Where would you and I be?
“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
This includes you who were once far away from God.
You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.
Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.
As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.
Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News.
The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.”
Colossians 1:19-23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/col.1.19-23.NLT
“Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days.
And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!”
All who heard him were amazed.
“Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?”
Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah.”
Acts of the Apostles 9:19-22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.9.19-22.NLT
Damascus was the last place I shared with my daughter before she became a wife. Our relationship was forever changed by her marriage. We now share a deeper understanding of one another and our friendship continues to grow. One day, we will ride the Creeper Trail again with the grandkids, but we will wait until the warmer months of summer for certain! And we will laugh together as we tell them the stories of our first (and second and third) rides! And just maybe we’ll brave an Easter weekend in hopes that the life of Christ will be on display again in the park. But it is on display! Christ’s life is on display today and every day in the lives of all who love and trust Him by the power of His Holy Spirit in us. And it is a beautiful thing! Messy! Magnificent! Majestic!
“Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory!
This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it!”
Colossians 1:27 TPT
A Fitting Reply 