You yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)
We descended weightless and wide-eyed into a rush hour mix of yellow tangs, rainbow parrotfish, and comical goatfish with their Colonel Sanders beards. Son-in-law Josh and I SCUBA dived through the fishy playground made from acres of white coral. Branches and arches bloomed from the sandy floor in a turquoise sea.
Enter with me into the microscopic throb of God’s coral reef. Each razor-sharp finger of coral is made up of thousands of empty calcite cells left by polyps, now deceased. Only the colony’s outer layer houses the current generation of polyps, living in their minuscule cup shaped skeletons. These creatures have built on the foundation of their ancestors for hundreds of years, until grand coral cities have formed.
By night, a jelly soft polyp reaches his feathery tentacle out for feeding, and by day, he hides inside his cell. He is unaware of his contribution to a rising sanctuary for all manner of aquatic life.
We Christians also eke out a living, flounder against our weakness, and see little accomplished. We are jelly soft polyps. But now, dear heart, take in this wonder. God adds our meager contribution to that of thousands before us, which will be built upon by those coming after. Together, we rise into a spiritual house, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
A deep and awesome miracle is at work here, and you and I are part of it. We don’t see it rise, or how our struggles in life contribute, nevertheless, the temple grows. It’s the true structure, a sanctuary of artistic mastery far more real than this fleshly polyp life would admit. We are more than meets the eye because our contributions tower in a realm yet to be seen. And so we are the holy priesthood of a living sanctuary.
Prayer: Father, I am awed by you, the eternal architect.