NOTE: I have just returned from a two-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land where we, among many other things, sailed on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus and the disciples sailed, saw a large Sycamore tree that Zacchaeus may have climbed, and went into the tomb that Lazarus came out of. Today’s quote comes from a book I was reading as we traveled.
Have you ever noticed how often people in the Old Testament built altars? It seems like they were building them all over the place all the time. Why? Because we have a natural tendency to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember. Altars help us remember what God doesn’t want us to forget. They give us sacred place to go back to.
So why did we stop building altars? I honestly wonder if our lives seem more routine than they really are simply because we don’t have any altars dotting the landscape. I wonder if many of us feel spiritually lost because we don’t have any milestones that help us find our way back to God. We need altars that renew our faith by reminding us of the faithfulness of God. And every once in a while, we need to go back to those sacred places to repent of our sin, renew our covenant with God, and celebrate what God has done.
I wonder if Peter ever rowed out to that spot on the Sea of Galilee where he walked on water. Did Zacchaeus ever take his grandchildren back to climb the sycamore tree where he caught his first glimpse of Jesus? Did Lazarus ever revisit the tomb where he was buried for four days? Did Paul ever ride out to the mile marker on the road to Damascus where God knocked him off his high horse? Did Abraham ever take Isaac back to Mount Moriah, where God provided a ram in the thicket? And I wonder if Moses ever returned to the burning bush, took off his sandals, and thanked God for interrupting the forty-year routine of his life by giving him a second chance to make a difference.
I think we underestimate the interconnection between geography and spirituality.
– Mark Batterson in Wild Goose Chase: Reclaim the Adventure of Pursuing God
#2230
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that you're home safe and sound and I'm sure SO blessed from the trip you just took. How awesome for you to have been where our Lord walked. I can only imagine! Maybe some day..
I really liked the reading today...as I do everyday, but somedays they speak more to my inner self than others. Being a Catholic, I was reminded that this is why we have the Sacramentals...anything that brings our hearts and minds to God. I think we are misunderstood in this area because some people have the wrong idea of what they stand for. Whatever they are, pictures, statues, icons, holy water, rosaries, they all raise our hearts and minds to God.....like the altars that dot the land of before! What an encouraging reading that yes...we need things to remind us of our Lord and to bring our hearts and minds to our Lord. We can get pretty hungry for these types of things without even knowing it! Thanks for sharing such a great writing! -- JJ
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ReplyDeleteA nice article. Altars were built to signify a place where God met man in a special way.
Fifty years ago, a group of men, including yours truly, built a Shrine to St Hubert patron saint of hunters, six miles north of Highway 8 along the McIntyre Creek (Shrine Road is about 1 mile east of the Eight High Bar and Store, east of Goodman). Besides a wood carving of St Hubert done by Norbert Petshieder at Swoboda Church Works in Kewaunee, we built an altar of Indiana Marble to remind everyone who visits the Shrine that this is a place where men met God among the evergreens and after thanking God for such natural beauty, prayed for health, blessing and good sportsmanship among deer hunters (and all hunters). Christ is the ultimate altar through Whom we meet the loving Spirit, but altars in churches and shrines are inspirational signs, as well. Welcome home.
-- Chaplain Mike