Daily Devotion:

Title: Hagia Sophia

Date: May 11, 2012

In Istanbul, my daughter and I were ending of our Turkish journey by visiting the Hagia Sophia, or Holy Wisdom Church. Completed in 537, it was the grandest church in Christendom for one thousand years. In 1453, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet the Conqueror, seized Constantinople, renamed it Istanbul, and changed the church into a mosque. In 1935 it became a museum, which is why we were walking down the narrow, twisting, and cave-like rampart from its upper level to its magnificent main floor.

Rounding the corner below us, and rushing up toward us were men in dark suits. One pinned me up against the ancient wall, efficiently frisked me, and ordered me, “Don’t move.” I tucked my daughter behind me. Two weeks previously, the USS Cole had been bombed. We were wary. Approaching us from the same corner walked President Putin of Russia. I could have reached out past his bodyguards and touched him, but, of course, I didn’t. Outside there were hundreds of armed guards, armored vehicles, and even tanks.  

Putin won’t remember me, didn’t see me, and will never learn about the brief fright he gave us. There we were, in one of the holiest and most magnificent buildings for God on Earth, near one of the most powerful men on Earth, with armies guarding him, but I could see, just like me, he was just a little human being inside the grand house of God.

Let’s Pray: Dear God, in your eyes we are all the same – human – creatures you’ve made. It doesn’t matter if we’re presidents or pastors.  We belong to you.  Amen.

Here’s a Thought: Only God is great.