As a child I pictured God in Heaven seated on a throne looking down upon me. My initial understanding of God was that He had saved me so one day I would live with Him in Heaven for eternity. This world seemed to not matter so much as I made my pilgrimage to ascend to a better place. So it seemed strange to pray “God’s will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” until one day I was ‘surprised by joy” [1] to discover the reality that the Temple of the living God, where Heaven and earth meet, is now God’s people. We are built together to be His dwelling place where He lives by His Spirit. [2]
As God’s child, I am a living stone joined with God’s children to embody and proclaim the way of Jesus in His world. A new humanity is invited to participate in God’s great recreation project because “He is making all things new”.
It will make all the difference to the way we do school, if we see it as temple building. As we lead students on their journey through school, we will see them as image-bearers called to know Christ and to be culture-makers who use their gifts to unfold God’s truth, beauty and goodness to the world.
They are to be cultivators of healing and agents of re-creation, knowing that Christ has overcome the kingdom of darkness and the power of evil. In the light of eternity, our world matters to God.
As teachers we must ask the question, ‘how can we lead our students to King Jesus and help them do the good works that He has prepared for them to do?’
God has designed each one a unique image-bearer, gifted to serve and bless others just as each stone was carved in the quarry and transported to the original Temple site to occupy its unique place in the building. In Ephesians 2:10 the Apostle Paul says we are “God’s workmanship” and this can also be equally expressed as “God’s poetry, Gods artwork.” Each student is designed to know Jesus and reflect in their unique personhood God’s wisdom and love into the world.
School is to be a foretaste of the new humanity where each one has a part to play. The fabric of life is to be one of faith, hope and love where grace, justice, forgiveness and restoration are practised. Teachers assist students on their journey through school, to locate their lives in God’s grand story, to celebrate the goodness of creation, lament the power of sin that diminishes human life and brings chaos and envision redemptive solutions because Christ is making all things new.
When Malcolm Muggeridge, the famed 20th Century journalist visited Mother Teresa’s home for the sick and dying in Calcutta and observed the way the Sisters of Charity cared for their decrepit bodies he wrote “When the train began to move, and I walked away, I felt as though I was leaving behind me all the beauty and joy in the universe…” [3]
May it be our prayer that our students in the midst of pain and suffering can find that life is beautiful when heaven meets earth.
Grace and Peace
The Team
The Excellence Centre
[1] Inference to Surprised by Joy, by CS Lewis
[2] Ephesians 2:19-22
[3] Muggeridge, M. Something beautiful for God (1971) pg17