Monuments

At the moment, I work in London two days a week, and have the pleasure of taking a walk from Charing Cross station across Trafalgar Square, St James' Park, past Buckingham Palace, to Victoria (ok a bit of a let-down at the end).

Trafalgar square - great, love N's column.

St James' Park - beautiful, how do they keep all that wildfowl from dying of smog inhalation?

But it's Buckingham Palace that always stops me in my tracks. It's massive. And what really gets me is that it was built for one person. The Queen. Quite a normal, little old lady, the sort I would normally help to cross the road. But this massive structure of rooms, statues, gardens, gold, and massive gates keeping everyone out speaks of someone greater. It's this person that effectively has the rule over our country. This monument speaks of HRM's greatness, her authority and her power over us little underlings. Fortunately we live in a relative (?) democracy right now.

We recently visited Egypt as well. Whoa, those temples all built by Pharoh's to show off their greatness and power. Especially Rameses II (check his story out), I think we can deduce that he sort of loved himself, by the size of the monuments and temples that he built.

So I thought about this. These massive monuments and palaces speak of the power and authority assumed by certain people. But we have God. His power and His authority is greater than any of these. But we don't see massive buildings (well the churches, but in comparison to the palaces and temples...?) statues, things which the tourists make a bee-line for.

But as I think about this, I wonder whether it is something much more subtle than bricks and mortar? God's monument is his creation. It is by looking at everything, opening our eyes, that we see His glory on display. But the unseen, the incomprehensible has even more to offer. The galaxy in which our tiny world is just a speck. The universe holding billions of galaxies, which we haven't even sized-up yet. We then must be part of that monument (we are created by Him, check out Psalm 139), so our very lives can give glory to him. Bricks and mortar are one thing, they can look grand and royal and regal, but without God they wouldn't exist. Living and breathing creatures? That's another thing altogether, a created living mass, all with a built-in need to worship their creator. That's bigger than any palace. That's God at work.

And even more than that. God built his own creation, and he let us in. No-one left outside just taking pictures, wondering what it's like to live in the Palace of the King. All invited. We are dwelling in the glory of God. How crazy is that? Think on...