Low

Do you know the *partial* story behind the grand cathedrals of the middle ages? The grandiose gothic architecture. The placement of these enormous houses of worship in the middle of the city. Even with much to be desired in terms of doctrine, the elaborate edifices that drew in weekly crowds of parishioners were architected to serve a particular purpose. To make the church goer see themselves in a proper context: small and less significant against the ornate splendor of God’s house. Stained glass windows cast brilliant flashes of color on marble floors and stone pillars. Everything about the presentation conveyed the clear message that God is BIG and coming into His presence was sure to be an almost terrifying delight for the senses. You walk away, spiritually awed and emotionally feeling like “Heaven came down.”

Now contrast that out of body experience of the Gothic Cathedral to this next thing.

Notice the picture. Have you ever been to a truck stop bathroom? If you haven’t, consider yourself “happy and blest!” funny thing is, if there’s any way to find humor in a truck stop bathroom, is they’re really an emergency only kind of deal. If you can find any other way to safely and securely relieve yourself without having to darken the doorway of one of these rest stops, you’d do it without hesitation. If the cathedral scenarios is an ethereal experience for the sense, the truck stop is a relentless attack on them. Something about the smell, even with the hint of fresh pine in a futile attempt to “clean” up, persists to remind us that you know if you’re even considering a rest stop restroom, you are indeed in a desperate situation.

So what is the purpose behind this contrast?

Here’s The Word:

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Often times we get too used to Scripture. We know it says that our righteousness is like filthy (menstruation) rags but after hearing it time and time again, it simply becomes passé…over used and less impactful. So this Cathedral vs Bathroom scenario is to breathe freshness into the idea of how far “Spiritually” God is from “naturally” us.

This too popped in my mind while contemplating this post. In my day, there was well-known “bathroom wall humor”. Jokes about things and supposed phone numbers to call for illicit pleasures. And in following that thought, the reality of redemption isn’t expressed in a centrally located cathedral whereby we can visit God and be enthralled by His presence. It’s really that Heaven DID come down, to us, in a horrible experience like the worst truck stop bathroom. And right next to “For a good time, call Krystal”, He wrote – “For eternal life, call on ME, and I will answer”

In the Gospel of Luke(1:48), Mary, the mother of Jesus makes a statement that I believe is a reflection on a verse from Psalms 136:23 “It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever”

These posts are never to push us to depression but often times when we are only looking around and not up, it becomes easy to compare ourselves amongst ourselves and totally miss the truth of the matter. Not one of us is worthy of exaltation, but also, not one of us should be made to feel less redeemable than any other. And the fact that the splendor of Heaven came to our truck stop bathroom speaks to an emergency indeed; yet it was our emergency, not His.

In Him,
Cros