To Dwell in the House of the King

Psalm 84
 ¹ How lovely is your dwelling place,
   LORD Almighty!
² My soul yearns, even faints,
   for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out
   for the living God.
³ Even the sparrow has found a home,
   and the swallow a nest for herself,
   where she may have her young—
a place near your altar,
   LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house;
   they are ever praising you.^[c]
 
 5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
   whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
⁶ As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
   they make it a place of springs;
   the autumn rains also cover it with pools.^[d]
7 They go from strength to strength,
   till each appears before God in Zion.

 ⁸ Hear my prayer, LORD God Almighty;
   listen to me, God of Jacob.
⁹ Look on our shield,^[e] O God;
   look with favor on your anointed one.

 ¹⁰ Better is one day in your courts
   than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
   than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
¹¹ For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
   the LORD bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold
   from those whose walk is blameless.

 ¹² LORD Almighty,
   blessed is the one who trusts in you.


Today is day two in Santiago with the grupo de gringos.  Yesterday, I was REALLY frustrated with all of the English I was hearing, but It's a bit better now after being able to go out to dinner in smaller groups last night.  I still cling to Messiah friends and some like-minded friends from Luther, Trinity, and a soul sister from Pitt as most of the crazy and ambitious gringos went out to fulfill the gringo stereotype last night (crazy consumers of alcohol).

The view from Cerro San Cerro San Cristóbal

Today, we toured the Presidential Palace called, "La Moneda" because it used to be a mint.  It was all very impressive with all the fine sculptures, the guards, and the riches in the palace, however, that wasn't the thing that stuck out to me the most.  What was it, you ask?  It wasn't a what, it was a who.  One of the rooms that we entered had a maid in it, busily polishing away so that the furniture would be in tip-top shape for a presentation of credentials that would be happening later tonight.  I had already been thinking about all of the different jobs involved in running the palace and the differences between it and the White House (and how much more it seemed we were able to see), but when we came to the maid, I started thinking about what it must be like to be a maid in the house of the President of Chile.  Of course, it was a house of government, and a foreign one at that, so naturally, I felt all sorts of out of place, but she, no, she had a place.  The maid had a place and SHE was as much a part of the Presidential palace as President Sebastián Piñera himself, and maybe even more so as she wasn't limited to serving a term.

The maid, polishing

Of course, this theme came back as we later found ourselves inside the National Cathedral.  Ah, yes, this still, like the ski resort was a construction of man, but it too had a reflection of the grandeur of God.  How small one feels in a cathedral!  How dwarfed by the ornate beauty of it all.  THIS is man's dwelling place for God almighty!  Although God is much bigger and not confined to our construction, it often helps me to visualize and put into perspective to imagine a cathedral.  You walk in and you are hushed with respect.  Even if you could shout, your voice, like the light inside would be sucked up into the space.  Constantly, your eyes are drawn up to the heavens, to the source of light, to the source of life.  Your thoughts, like the ceilings are automatically higher, and even if you aren't catholic, you want to pray.

One of the domes in the ceiling of the cathedral

And then, yes, I couldn't help but think to the Psalms: 84 (one of my favorites).  Even the maid in the Presidential Palace gets to come to work at the Presidential Palace EVERY DAY!  Even the swallows of this universe, dwarfed by the grandeur of the Cathedral or the Palace can seek refuge in the vastness of such a building, and even we, humans dwarfed by the vastness of the universe, put out our best, ornate our houses of worship with all the riches we can muster and put our best foot forward to enter the house of the most high!  How can you not praise God?  How can you not be humbled?  How can you not lift your eyes and think of every power higher than yourself on the food chain, and last, the one power higher than us all?!?




Pictures: (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073481&id=1461390133&l=be452cb697)