Conversations in the Marketplace
Acts 17:23 · Fresh Start: When Life Takes an Unexpected Turn
“As I was walking through town and carefully observing your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: ‘To an unknown God.’ What you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you.” — Acts 17:23 (CEB)
Someone in Athens built an altar to a god they couldn’t name. Just in case. Just because they sensed there was something more than what they could see and categorize. Paul didn’t mock that altar. He honored it. He saw it as evidence that the human heart reaches for God even when it doesn’t know God’s name. We all build altars to unknown gods — those moments when we sense something larger than ourselves in a piece of music, a conversation that goes deeper than expected, a sunset that stops us mid-step. The longing is real even when we can’t articulate it. Paul’s genius was meeting people at their own altar, their own searching, and saying: what you’ve been reaching for has a name. The unnamed longing in your life isn’t random. It’s an invitation.
God of every unnamed longing, thank you for placing eternity in the human heart. Christ, you are the answer to the question we didn’t know how to ask. Holy Spirit, meet us at the altars we’ve already built and reveal the God we’ve been searching for. Amen.