This is the last article in the inspiring monthly Crammed with Heaven column in which Jenni Pretorius Hill shares stories of hope which bring Heaven’s perspective to Earth
I remember creating timelines at school as a child. The assignment would be to look back at your life and mark the significant moments on a straight line. It seemed natural then, to do the same looking toward the future. I figured if I just put one foot in front of the other and followed the plan, I would reach each milestone as marked out on my ruler-straight line. It really hasn’t worked out like that, but I’m not disappointed. I have reached some of my points, but rarely by the route I planned. Sometimes I have skipped a milestone, only to circle back to it later; other times my course has led me far off the path of my dreamed-up linear journey. And, then there are things where the mark keeps on shifting further down the line, and I wonder if I will ever alight on them.
Looking back now, I am grateful that my life has followed Heaven’s calendar rather than trudge along my silly timeline. 20 years ago we received a prophetic word about opening a shop. It was a strange word, and the prophet himself was confused by it. He shook his head, and as if speaking to himself he muttered, ‘but you’re called to a much higher thing in ministry!’ He called it a ‘bookshop’ or something of the sort, where people would gather for philosophical conversation. The other part of the word was about a ‘battle for inheritance’ — but the money would be released, he said, at the right time.
In December 2024, we opened the first Plato coffee shop in East London. The opportunity had been presented two years earlier, but we didn’t have the financial means to pursue it. We had long given up on an expectation of inheritance from my husband’s family, but suddenly through a dramatic change of heart that resulted in the sale of property, we inherited just enough money to secure the franchise. The timing proved crucial. Had the money come even a week later, we would have lost the opportunity. I do believe the prophet heard ‘Plato’ but since the franchise didn’t exist back then, he made the literary and philosophical association, and not one with a ‘coffee shop’!
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It’s been a long-time coming. I help people write books now: books, and a shop, and ministry both within and outside the church walls. It really is better than I imagined. But it certainly hasn’t been a perfect journey. There’s a line from the song, Anthem, by Leonard Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring
forget your perfect offering
there is a crack, a crack in everything
that’s how the light gets in.
My life’s offering has been far from perfect, and what I have offered God has often fallen miserably short of what I would want. The broken vessels we bring — cracked, flawed, failed — cannot stop the liquid light that pours forth from heaven when He speaks.
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If He has said it, He will do it.
This is my final article for this ‘Crammed with Heaven’ page. I started it to inspire readers to notice God’s presence in the ordinary moments of everyday life. While you might not see Him in your difficult circumstances and painful reality, there is more of Heaven in your world than there is of hell, and God is at work for your good and His glory!
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