Acts 21:5-6 When our time had come to an end, we left to continue our journey, while all of them, with their wives and children, accompanied us out of the city. After kneeling down on the beach to pray, we said farewell to one another and boarded the ship, and they returned home.

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In the immortal words often attributed to Dr. Seuss, “Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.”

Paul is wrapping up his farewell tour on his journey back to Jerusalem, each stop undoubtedly getting harder and harder because of the realization that this was goodbye for good. What also had to be weighing heavily on Paul and his companions was the realization that in returning to Jerusalem, they would face severe troubles there.

At this point in the story he has stopped at the city of Tyre, a coastal city which is in present day Lebanon. The city had a sordid past, as Jesus used Tyre as an example of an unrepentant city in Matthew 11:21-22.

Yet he also healed a demon-possessed daughter of a Canaanite woman from Tyre in Matthew 15:21-28. Jesus commented that this woman had “great faith.”

Paul would spend an entire week at Tyre on his last journey. Unlike the farewell at Ephesus which was just for the church elders, this one appeared to include the entire church, even including the wives and children. It would seem Paul would want to give some grand words of farewell, but no, what we read is they got down on their knees and prayed. Amidst their sorry in separation, they were joined together in prayer.

PRAYER STARTER…

O Great Lord God, there are times when our hearts are filled with sorrow and uncertainty about what happens next. We know that when we don’t know which way to go, we have that comfort that comes from knowing that you are the Way.

(Continue this prayer as the Holy Spirit directs you personally.)