Of Molecules and Cathedrals… and Us, Too.
I’m sitting here at 10:30 p.m., dancing around the blog post on my mind.
It’s about molecules. It all began with a song. And it has to do with you.
Side note: you should perhaps be worried. I, who haven’t tampered with molecules since Freshman year of college, am about to give you a science lesson.
Commence Lesson:
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Atoms make up molecules
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Molecules make up material
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Materials make up things like cathedrals and third-world missions.
Pause lesson.
Let me back up. It all began in the car today, when Toby Mac’s City on our Knees played on the radio. I was singing along, tumbling out words I didn’t much ponder, when I was caught by this line:
From cathedrals
OK. Ready for a peek inside my head? Probably not, and perhaps the world shouldn’t be exposed to my jumbled thought process, but here ‘goes.
To third world missions
Love will fall to earth
Hey! Thinks me.
God is working in cathedrals, third-world missions, and everywhere between and beyond.
Unique works.
The Cathedral looks a lot different from the mission.
But they’re beautiful, both, because of His work.
Both made of building materials, but so different. If one atom was off in those molecules, those materials, it would all be different.
Woah. It’s like us.
*End peek into Amanda’s brain. Not entirely accurate. I polished it up for you; there were in reality a lot more “ummms” and “Aha! I’m a molecule!” moments.*
This is what I’m getting at: God is at work in our lives. He has placed things before you, before me, to do. They’re perfect plans, constructed atom by atom to be exactly what’s right for us.
Commence lesson:
Mess with the molecular structure of a diamond, and you’ll get coal. And vice-versa.
Pause lesson.
Sometimes, we look at the work He’s doing in and through the people around us and we panic. “My story doesn’t look anything like theirs! I’m doing it wrong!” We think they’re diamonds, we’re coal.
Commence lesson:
He designed coal. He designed diamonds. Same atoms, different structure, different purposes.
He designed cathedrals. He designed third-world missions. He designed your story. He designed your friends’ stories. Same Love, different structures and tasks, same goal.
Have you ever panicked, questioned, doubted, when your ministry unfolded differently than you expected, or differently than someone else’s?
What would happen if the third-world mission suddenly decided it needed to look just like the cathedral? All their efforts would be poured into modifying something that needed no modification, while the fields ripe for the harvest before them languished in the flurry of reconstruction.
I encourage you to look at what’s before you- directly before you– today, and see: if He’s put it there, it’s just right. It’s beautiful. It was designed for you, and you for it. Let us not get lost in comparison of stories and ministries, but revel and rejoice in the different structures His purposes have weaved for us!
“…you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 2:5
