By Meica Campbell
“Have them construct a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them.” Exodus 25:8
I have a confession to make; I don’t like to read most of the Old Testament. I know, I know, it is a rich part of God’s story of love and rescue, and it is vitally important to understand his character and the big picture. I haven’t let it stop me from reading it, I just prefer to dwell in the new covenant part of scripture.
This year, as I have been journeying in the Beginning through to the chronology of Israel, I have awakened to a new thought. God, in His lack of nothing, desires to dwell in beautiful places and He goes to great lengths to make them that way. We see this in the very beginning with creation itself- all the imagery, the garden with its lush landscape and the detail of His handiwork. It continues with how detailed He creates mankind, in His own image and likeness to dwell with and among them.
The importance of God’s delight to create and dwell in beauty was furthered when I read Exodus. In Exodus 25 we read all about the details of the tabernacle (if read from another book, there will be between 13-18 chapters)! And as I read it, I made a connection concerning those (used to be mundane to me) details that I hadn’t made before: God delighted to have all those details put into HIS dwelling place prior to Him dwelling there. He made it beautiful and lush just like the garden where He dwelt after creation; with vibrant colors and lush fruit, different textures, and shiny metals contrasted with choice wood (the very details I just complained would take multiple chapters to convey). And in that beautiful place, He would dwell close to His people once again.
But as I pondered, I came back to my New Covenant roots once again. We know from Acts 2 that new covenant Christians have the in-dwelling of the Spirit inside us. We talk a lot about walking in, being found in, and having our identity in Him. And we pair this with the idea that because of Jesus’ atonement, we are made new from the inside out which is both a position we find ourselves in as well as a process happening to us. So, God makes/is making me new and then resides within me. Sometimes it feels as if His requests for what I look like on the inside are numerous and detailed (think of the lists of immoral behavior found in Ephesians and Galatians contrasted by the fruit of the Spirit). But I think we can agree from the way scripture describes it that the way He is changing me is making me into his likeness, which is beautiful.
And then it hit me:
God dwells in beautiful places, me. And you. For far too long I have struggled to get out of the mentality that I have to look more like Christ so that God will dwell in me. But what if I started to believe in the sheer delight He gets out of making me a beautiful place (just like the garden) because He does dwell in me?
To further this line of thinking, what if I began to believe that about those with whom I am leading and empowering? What if I started to look at them as delightful and beautiful dwelling places of the Most High because He is dwelling with them and not so that He can dwell with them?
Lord, let the reality of you dwelling in beautiful places begin with how I treat myself and end with how I treat those around me.