The Glory That Remains

Our church will soon renovate the sanctuary. It was build in 1980. There are stains on the carpet and the pews are worn in many places. The platform has been added to, modified and gotten weak in places. The stucco walls are in need of paint. The morning sun lets in a glare so strong that those sitting near it cannot be seen. The walls echo the sound from the speakers and make it hard for people to understand what is being said.

Yet, the room is still glorious. It has a wooden ceiling that is just beautiful. The pipe organ has wondrous pipes which frame the front. The room is 9,000 square feet giving glory to God. The architect designing the changes for the renovation remarked, "Those who built your sanctuary did such an amazing job that when we make the upgrades, it will look like it was just built in 2014." In other words, the renovation will not look like putting lipstick on a pig. This lipstick will go on Miss America.

It is so easy to focus on the negative when looking at anything. Isn't that what the news has become. Very little of the media talks about what good is being done. They lead with the murders, continue with the natural disasters and finish with the accidents. Yet, most newscasters seem to have a very positive look when they step back and speak with their fellow reporters. They talk in the positive. Do they focus on the negative news because that's what we want to know?

Looking at the state of man can make anyone depressed. it appears that we are going so far away from God every moment that there is no returning to Him. It seems we have lost all semblance of being God's children. Yet, this is not true. We still carry within us God's glory. We are still His creation. We are capable of being a glory to Him.

Humanity has some of the characteristics of our sanctuary. We have cracks and flaws but were created with such beauty that the beauty is still there. We have worn off places but there is a day of renovation ahead. There is a day when the glory will again be untainted by what we have done in our lives. There is a day when He will make us like we are new all over again.

I have to remember that when I encounter people. I can't treat them as broken without any hope of repair. I can't see them as ugly because of the wear and tear. I have to see the glory that remains.

Psalm 8:3-9 (ESV)
³  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴  what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
⁵  Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
⁶  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
⁷  all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
⁸  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
⁹  O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!