I think, if pressed, I would say that I am most-looking forward to visiting Columba’s Bay.
Columba’s Bay is 3,745 miles from Sylva. And I will be going there next week.
The pebble beach is located on the Scottish island of Iona where St. Columba and his followers landed in the year 563. These intrepid Christians had traveled from Ireland to Iona in a leather-bound boat. It is said that after landing there, Columba climbed to the top of a nearby hill—the Hill of the Back to the Ireland—to make sure that he could no longer see Ireland. To do so would have been too much of a temptation to return to his homeland. Since the place from which he had traveled was no longer in view, Columba decided that it would be an appropriate location to establish his missionary work to the rest of Europe.
The beach is not sandy, but rocky. It is littered with round pebbles and flecks of emerald-colored marble. It has been a destination for thousands of pilgrims through the ages who wish to commemorate Columba’s work and to acknowledge the sacred quality of the small island. Once an ancient monastic community, Iona is now the site of an intentional Christian community that seeks to be a people who prizes common worship, justice, and peace.
For Columba, and for countless travelers to this ‘thin place,’ Iona represents a turning point. It was certainly a turning point for the faithful Christian monks alongside Columba who struck out to spread the Good News to people who had never heard of Jesus. It was not only a turning point in the history of the Church in the British Isles, but also in Christendom during the Dark Ages. And it has been a turning point for those who have found themselves on its sacred and rocky shores some 15 centuries hence.
Yes, my visit to Iona will serve as a turning point for me, as well.
My pilgrimage to Iona will serve as the beginning of the final stretch of my Doctorate of Ministry work. When I return, I will be beginning the project phase of my program.
My walk along the shores and in the grassy fields of Iona will also represent a turning point for me spiritually as I consider how sacred places can be a place of communion and transformation with God.
And yes, I anticipate that my trip to Iona will be an emotional turning point for me as I begin unencumbered the good but hard work of reflecting on my father’s death.
So, I will walk, pray, journal, think, consider, study, admire, pause, worship, cry, rest, and meditate while I wander the ruins of an ancient Celtic Christian site. You will be with me. And as such, I ask for your prayers that God might make good work of my time in Scotland next week.
Unlike Columba, I do not wish for my past—that is, the place from where I’ve come—to be lost from sight. If anything, I would hope that I would be able to see both the past and the future more clearly.
Thank you for your blessing as I seek to experience God in fresh ways and to learn and to grow. I am already looking forward to returning to you and telling you about what my journey was like.
Who knows? Perhaps you might want to make a similar pilgrimage yourself.