One of the great privileges of my life has been the opportunity to travel far and wide. While most of my travel has been related to either speaking at conferences or filming documentaries, my hosts have often invited me to deviate from the straightest course to explore and take in the area’s natural beauty. It’s an irresistible invite: “If you’re coming all this way, let me show you the sights…”
In this way, I have spent time in the Alps and watched the sun rise over Lauterbrunnen which, to my mind, must be one of the most beautiful spots in all the earth. I’ve driven mountain passes in the Alps, of course, but also in the Rockies and the Andes. I’ve stood on spines that separate two great mountain ranges and marveled at the peaks extending far beyond what the eye can see.
I’ve stood beneath and before some of the world’s great waterfalls and seen torrents of water pour hundreds of feet from towering cliffs above to dark valleys below. I’ve passed over reefs teeming with the most brightly-colored aquatic life and stood in the shadow of mighty volcanos.
I’ve traveled deep into fjords and visited isolated islands in Alaska and Scotland. I have seen savannah and desert, hill and plain, ocean and sea. I have encountered creatures that are magnificent and horrifying, massive and microscopic. I have seen the starkest kinds of beauty and the lushest, the gloomiest and brightest.
Besides all of this, I have been able to tour some of the world’s foremost museums and galleries, to study works of art ancient and modern—some of the greatest examples of art the human hand has ever crafted.
Truly, I have seen wonders more beautiful than tongue or scribe could ever tell. And yet. And yet none of this represents the greatest beauty I have ever seen. There is something more wonderful, still, something that delights my eyes and thrills my heart.
The greatest beauty I have ever seen is within the simple walls of a primary school gym. It is God’s people gathered to worship him as Grace Fellowship Church. Here we have people who come from many different walks of life, some of them young and some of them old, some of them wealthy and some of them just getting by, some of them executives and some of them laborers, some of them students and some of them retirees. Here we have people who were born in 30 or 40 different countries and who speak 50 or 60 different languages. Here we have people who have been following Jesus for decades and people who have been following him for weeks. Here we have people who would otherwise have no reason to know one another, to fellowship with one another, to love and care for one another. Except for this: They have been saved by God and called to be his church.
This is a spectacle I get to see every week. And Sunday by Sunday I stand amazed, my mind reeling and my heart thrilled by the sheer beauty of the masterpiece that God first imagined and then created—the masterpiece that exhibits the wonders of his grace and the uniqueness of what he is accomplishing in this world. I could do without the travel and live without the museums. I could easily bid them farewell and never leave my own city again. But my heart would fail and my soul would shrivel without the church and without the glimpse of profound beauty I can savor each and every time we gather.
