Scripture does not tell us much about Lydia, but we have enough to know that she begins the story as one who is always the outsider. A woman in a man's world, a person of wealth and means, an immigrant, a gentile among Jews. Then she hears the gospel and is baptized, and all these identities are replaced. She becomes a child of God, "marked by the cross of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit." She becomes the leader of the church at Philippi. How does this transformation happen? How does it happen for us?