God's Construction Zone

“In Christ you too are being built together to become a building in which God lives by His Spirit.” Ephesians 2:21

Time-lapse photography is fascinating. In just a few seconds, buds turn to blossoms, small clouds become raging storms, and hazy cities transform into twinkling skylines. But buildings are the best. It only takes moments for an empty lot to be engulfed by a towering skyscraper. The film rolls so quickly that we hardly see the construction process, only the finished product, but were we to freeze each frame, the many small steps of the one big project could be spotted. Gesturing cranes, tons of materials, and endless lunch hours would come into sharp focus. The work might seem tedious and the progress halting. Many days could pass without much visible result, and we may wonder what was being done. But as the whistle blew each evening, tasks would have been accomplished—a floor wired, a wall strengthened, or carpet laid—and slowly, steadily, surely, the whole building would rise.

“In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord…with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone”(Eph. 2:21&20). Each unending day as the earth spins its way around the sun, God the Builder is building. The cornerstone of His construction is Christ, our sacrifice and our Savior. By His grace we’ve been drawn into His plan, placed on site, and fitted for use by the Master Carpenter.

God’s holy building has no subcontractors; He does the work Himself—in us, through us, and with us. “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Ps. 127:1). Without Him, all structures, no matter how strong they may seem, will eventually crumble. Without His presence, our lives lie in rubble. Only He can pick us up, mismatched and messed-up bricks that we are, and build something beautiful. He cements us together by His Spirit, creating a common bond that unifies us as one though we come from different cultures, have different habits, and hold different abilities. “In him you too are being built together to become a building in which God lives by his Spirit.”

The escalating floors of God’s building are phases of time—decades, centuries, millennia, in which He is busy connecting and constructing. The rooms are our individual realms of influence—personal compartments of ministry and mission that we each fulfill by involvement in community, family, and our local church. Every square foot of life is divine, with no difference between the “spiritual” and the “secular.” All lines on the blueprint are under His Lordship, for He is the Maker and we are the material. Often, the progress may seem slow, but God is always at work in this world building His children into His church. One heavenly day, we might get to watch this process in fast-forward, but if God pushed the button now, we wouldn’t be complete.

Life is a Hard Hat Area, but the One holding the plans is in total control.
Be His brick, and let Him build you into something beautiful.