Heavenly Father, enlighten us by your Holy Spirit as we reflect on the words of the apostle Paul in his powerful letter to the Ephesians.  Amen Ephesians 2:19-22 (NIV)

19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

In setting forth a picture of the church, the apostle Paul uses the metaphor of a building made by God in which He lives by his Spirit.  I love the picture.

Last summer I visited the cathedral in Milan. It is constructed out of hundreds of thousands of individual stones each one cut, carved and placed in a particular way to fit into the whole. If you tour the roof of the cathedral, it is possible to see close-up how each stone has been carefully worked.  In a way this magnificent cathedral is a metaphor for the living temple of which each of us is a part.

This living temple is all God’s work. He lays the foundation (the prophets and apostles), he sets the cornerstone (Jesus) and then, like a skilled craftsman, he chooses, shapes and connects each stone (you and me) into the magnificent temple that becomes His dwelling place.

It is a joy to know that God has chosen each one of us to be a stone in the edifice he is building. It is encouraging to know that he is at work shaping and connecting us into his dwelling place, the church and more specifically, Point of Grace congregation. It is exhilarating to know that we are part of God’s holy temple in which he dwells by his Holy Spirit.

Lord, thank you for making us part of the holy temple in which your Spirit dwells. Amen.

jhf