Lydia was a seller of purple from Thyatira in Macedonia, the trade centre for beautiful cloth. The elite of the ancient world prized this fabric because of its expensive dye, secreted from hundreds of sea snails. As you may imagine, the time-consuming process was expensive, and the locals associated Tyrian purple with power and wealth. Today, purple is the color of kings and coronations. One Sabbath, a group of women gathered on the plain by the river outside Philippi, where Mount Pangaeus rose to the town’s west. Lydia, a Jewess, and several women, met there to worship God. Paul, the apostle, and his missionary team had arrived in Philippi, and they also sought a restful location where they could pray. They discovered Lydia and her friends by the river. This occasion reminds me of when I stood on a cliff as the sun rose over South Australia’s En...