Can't touch this.

May 20, 2010

Can’t touch this.

Read at own discretion/ It would be unlike me not to post a theological piece.

When I lived in HD, I used to visit the Koln cathedral to sit on the steps and ponder the generations of people who worshiped there…. the number of prayers lifted to God there… the intent of the cathedral’s beauty to be pleasing to God, as well as, the many hands that have worked on it to make it that way- these thoughts alone are incredibly overwhelming. For over 1,000s of years this very place has been a place where the weary have come to lay their burdens at the feet of the Cross and walk away renewed…

Colossians 1:15-19:

“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at the Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels- everything got started with Him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, He organizes it, holds it together, like a head does the body.

He was supreme in the beginning and- leading the resurrection parade- He is supreme in the end. From beginning to end He’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so roomy, that everything of God finds it proper place in Him without crowding. Not only that but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe- people and things, animals and atoms- get properly fixed because of His death, His blood that poured down from the cross.” - MSG version

I read these verses – which conjure similar but far superior awestruck thoughts - “Wow, to man the Koln cathedral is a huge beautiful work of art- and a powerful draw for people to come experience, ponder, and stand in awe- - but yet still it cannot touch the omnipotence of the Cross.”

I wonder if those who planned it and built it ever thought the same things- that while the cathedrals’ beauty is superior to many it still can only convey a glimpse of the power and beauty of the Cross.