Beauty in the Building

We spent 2 weeks ago in Jerusalem touring a lot of Holy sites and visiting different museums. We toured so many churches, I mean so many. When you think of the Holy Land I feel like there is this perception in our head that every Holy place is going to be perfectly preserved in its original condition from 2000+ years ago, but if I'm being honest most of the sites have a church built on top of them. And, if you think about it, the churches have also been there for a significant amount of time too. I often forget that it's not actually about the physical building, but about the realness and the presence of God.

Sometimes I think about old historical churches and I can’t help but think “are they trying to make the church more important than God?”.  “Isn’t the church not supposed to be about the building?” “Why do we place so much value on the temple if our body is one?” But, as I think about all those questions now, the talent that God gave someone to build these church buildings is incredible. The vision that he gave the architects to design every small intricate detail is powerful. As we toured church after church I started to see the intentionality in the design. I started to see all the work that was put in because of their love for Him. I asked God to restore my awe for him and I thought it was going to be because of the beauty of the places that I saw. I thought the buildings would connect the stories of the Bible. I thought the buildings would make me magically understand all the stories we read in Sunday school. But it’s not about the building. And it never has been. My awe for him has been found in the fact that God created humans, with talents a purpose, and with intention. We are created in his image. To create, to build, and to give life to all things. The church buildings that I’ve seen here are alive in every detail and aspect of the floor, the stone, every tile on the ceiling and every mosaic on the walls.

Sometimes it’s hard to see God in between all the people. It’s hard to feel God when you’re being shoved around in a building. And it’s hard to tangibly experience God when we walk in a society that idolizes the building more than God. But isn’t that why I’m here too? To see God in the building? To restore my awe of God through architecture and not through experiencing him? The people visiting the church are there to experience God just as much as me why am I subconsciously judging their experience. When I look past all the chaos of the people I can see his love in them. I can see his glory in all the things that have been built and created and withstood time. I found that the beauty of the building was so much greater when I looked at it through the eyes of the love of God.

-Talk Soon, Aspen