You BELONG here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home. Ephesians 2:19-22 (The Message)
Have you ever thought of yourself as a building? It’s interesting the architectural words we use when we talk about ourselves. We talk about our foundations—where we come from and what we base our lives on. It’s easy enough to decide where the kitchen is in our bodies. The tongue and stomach are prime taste testers and a bit lower would be the bathroom where we get rid of the stuff the body can’t use.
Our office would be in our heads, where our organizing, plotting, and planning take place and our legs and feet would be the garage where our transportation is located. I’m not sure which body part would be the bedroom, unless it would be our bottoms—particularly if they’re well-padded bottoms!
In a way, we are like self-contained tiny houses with only one occupant—ourselves! This scripture is, in a way, saying that God is bringing all these tiny houses together into one big church where he can kick off his shoes and relax in his easy chair enjoying his time at home.
What kind of house would you be? Would you have lots of windows to watch the sunsets and sunrises? Would you have easy chairs in your sitting room? Would you have a dining room or just a table in the kitchen? Would your bedroom be in the loft, or would you have a hide-a-bed in the sitting room that also serves as a couch? Would you be close to the ground or high in the air?
I believe that we all have the backgrounds that we have in order to provide something important to this house that God’s building. Some of us come from unstable families where they had to decide the type of person they wanted to become. Some of us come from families with lots of money where they had to discover that money doesn’t buy the important things, like time or love. Some of us come from families that didn’t have a lot of worldly goods but knew the value of solid relationships.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the doorway to a better understanding of God, but I also believe that there are many paths to that door. Many of us had no idea that we would end up at that door when we chose our paths in the beginning. It will be fun to see how we all fit into God’s house!
Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She has recently published her first book, Jessie’s Corner: Something To Think About, which is now available for purchase. Based on several lesser-known scriptures from the Bible, this is a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.
