God Is Found Everywhere

Here Is the Church, Here Is the Steeple

When I was in school, we got taught this little story with our hands. You make a teepee shape, fold the first three fingers in and interlock them, fold them all together inside out, and wiggle. Here was the little story that went with it: Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open inside and there's all the people.

I used to love that because it reminded me of Sundays going to church — turning up at our little church at Westwall's End Baptist, seeing the steeple, and then coming inside and meeting all the wonderful people in there.

When the Temple Came Down

In the reading we heard today, Jesus speaks about the temple — which was kind of like their church — being taken apart, stone by stone. The Jewish people must have been so sad when this happened, because the temple was the place where they felt most connected to God. They could go in there and feel God's presence.

So what the Jewish people had to do was learn that God is not just found in the temple. God is found everywhere — by a river, in their homes, sitting around a campfire.

A Lesson for Us Too

I wonder if that's a lesson we need to learn as well. I love going to church, and I feel close to God when we're in church — when we read the scriptures, when we pray, and when we meet all the wonderful people in there.

But we need to remember that God can be found everywhere: around the fire, down by the river, at the beach, in the bush, in a conversation. We as Christians believe that we can meet with God anywhere.

Where Do You Feel Most Connected to God?

So here's a question to sit with: Where do you feel most connected to God? Where do you feel God's presence the most? It might be in your bed. It might be in the bush. It might be when you're sitting around a fire. Think about it — where do you feel like God is most present for you?