Every year the Chaplains choose a theme that will guide our spiritual conversations and chapel talks for the first few weeks, and this year the theme is dwell. Our theme verse is John 1:14 "the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us," and I've been amazed at just how often I come across either "dwell" or "dwelling" in God's word, now that I'm looking for it. Take Psalm 84, for example, where being a doorkeeper in the dwelling place of God (v.1) is contrasted as far lovelier superior than dwelling in the tents of the wicked (v.10). Or how about Colossians 3:16, which prompts us to “let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.”
So far this year, in both HS and MS chapels, we've been seeking to craft a grand narrative for our students. It’s the story of our God, whose love so compels him to want to dwell with us, that he constantly pursues his people, desiring to come near. We see it in the Garden, in the wilderness through the Tabernacle, in the imagery of the prophets, and of course loudest of all in Jesus. I’m just emerging from a deep dive into Exodus and the Tabernacle, amazed that the New Testament would make the comparison from that beautiful and intricately designed structure to our own bodies (1 Corinthians 6). What a crazy idea that the God of the universe would send his Son so that we could be given new hearts (Ezekiel 36) so that he could then move in and dwell with us!?
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