Nestled in a pine-specked valley just outside Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado sits a rustic chapel. It is built of rough-hewn stone and large timber beams. This sacred space serves a summer camp that is over 100 years old.
St Catherine of Siena Chapel offers services year-round. Its thick walls provide a quiet refuge from frigid winter snow and scorching summer wind. Its walls carry a parable for our spiritual lives. It sits atop a large flat boulder that extends deep into the valley floor.
This boulder was initially round and uneven, unsuitable as a foundation in its natural state. But the architect saw potential where others did not. He brought in dynamite and placed the charges strategically. After the blast, he did not cast the rubble away. Instead, he brought in skilled masons.
The masons worked carefully. They built a beautiful house for God on the now perfectly flat boulder. The walls rose out of the rubble left after the blast. Skillful hands shaped the rubble into building blocks for the walls of the church. The builders added new materials only when needed.
This is what it is like when God recreates a new heart within us. He could cast us off as unfit for his presence. But instead, he works with what we have to offer. He dismantles and destroys our corrupt hearts and rebuilds them carefully. He adds new material when needed. He makes our hearts into a beautiful dwelling place for himself. All we must do is sing the scripture song along with Kind David, “Create in me a clean heart oh God!” (Ps 51:10).
Questions to ponder or discuss
Does God give us a clean heart instantly, or is it a process that takes time?
Name something in your life that God has broken down and reformed into something beautiful.
Name something God is currently working to re-make in your life.
Are you working with God to allow him in, or are you fighting the process?
Why does God bother to re-make a clean heart in us sinful beings when he could create new beings?
By David F. Garner