Jul 212010
One day recently when nobody else was around, I happened to walk by the sanctuary just when the afternoon sun was streaming full force into the west windows. The light caught my eye and I stepped inside. The sanctuary was quiet, as it is most of the week, as if catching the beauty of that sunlight and holding it for us until we can get back there on Sunday. Even though all the pews were empty and the room was still, there was an energy there that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
“I was glad when they said to me,” writes the author of Psalm 122, “‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’”
I know the church isn’t about buildings. I know you can commune with God in nature, you can find the Holy Spirit on a hike through the mountains or in the roar of waves on the beach.
But have you ever sat in a room where the light falls just right, where the prayers of the church have been raised for generations, where songs of praise soak the walls and rise up from the carpet, where the people of God gather, where the spirit of ancient words fill the air?
If you think the afternoon sun is breathtaking, you should see the light shine in here on Sunday mornings.