where is the temple?

"more and more, we are bathed in a silent, soft and heavenly blue glow. it is as if we carry divinity in our pockets and purses."

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There is something so beautiful in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles when King Solomon is observing the completion of the temple. As I’ve been reading through it in a year-long chronological bible, it’s been tugging on my heart. Maybe because when I read it, I feel like Solomon is talking about my heart.

Because if, as the bible promises, my own body is a temple, these scenes and these prayers of Solomon contain all sorts of gorgeous things about ME, which is something kind of incredible to imagine.

Solomon dedicates the temple and says, “But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built! Yet give attention to your servant’s prayer and his plea for mercy, O Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your servant is praying in your presence. May your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, this place of which you said you would put your Name there. May you hear the prayer your servant prays toward this place.”

How remarkable – that in my heart is a promised dwelling place for the Lord. And how poignant, these words of Solomon, and convicting, that I would be praying that the Lord’s eyes would be on that place day and night, and that His name would be singing in my heart, an unstoppable melody, clear and ringing like chapel bells.

What I love even more, after another scene of Solomon on his knees, seeking blessing, is when the Lord’s glory fills the temple. The bible says it consumes it, fills up every imaginable space, and calls all who see it to cry out in worship.

I found that quote above on Zoe’s blog, and it sang beautifully along with these thoughts I’ve been having about God’s dwelling place, how it’s us. Because maybe, every single day, the Lord is filling my heart and my pores with His glory, Maybe every day, He is speaking His name there, decorating the walls of that home of His with something beautiful, making it look more like heaven. Maybe, as I learn to be more like Solomon, on my knees, spread out humbly toward God, glory will rush right in, until I’m swimming in it, until it oozes from my lips and my mouth and my eyes, and even pieces of it hide in my pockets and purses.