Monday, 10 February 2025

Ruined Church?

Last night as I was going to sleep I saw a picture.  It was of ground covered with medieval masonry as if it was an ancient house recently struck by a missile attack.  The size and nature of the rubble indicated that it might have once been a church.  Then I heard a voice in my head, ‘Do you reckon, human being, that this church can be rebuilt?’
 
And I thought, ‘God knows! But I don’t believe it can be restored to the building it once was.  No amount of human plans and ingenuity would be sufficient to achieve that.’

Then the voice said, ‘Human being, call the wind to blow over these stones.’  

So I prayed, ‘Spirit, please come.’  Then there was a mighty wind, like an earthquake, which shook and seized the rocks — all but one.  That one great stone remained unmoved and stable, and I saw that it was the former foundation stone, the Cornerstone.  

And a voice came from the wind which addressed the shaken stones, saying, ‘See that you love one another; even as He has loved you, you are to love one another.’  And I looked and saw the stones, one by one, course upon course, coming together to create a new building around the great Cornerstone.  There was no longer need of laws and regulations to hold the  stones in place, because in their hearts they were full of love which bound them together.  I knew that this building was different from what it had been before, because its windows were clear, clear as crystal, so that everyone could see inside; its doors were always open.  It was as if there was music from inside, ‘All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place.’  Finally I looked up and saw fixed in place a finial on the pitch of the roof.  It was the cross which I had first seen lying among the rubble of the destroyed church.  

And I remembered Jesus’s words to Simon Peter, ‘The gates of Hell shall not prevail against my Church.’

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