2 Chronicles 2:8-10 (NIV)
“Send me also cedar, juniper and algum logs from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled in cutting timber there. My servants will work with yours [9] to provide me with plenty of lumber, because the temple I build must be large and magnificent. [10] I will give your servants, the woodsmen who cut the timber, twenty thousand cors of ground wheat, twenty thousand cors of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine and twenty thousand baths of olive oil.”
Solomon wanted the Temple to be the best it could be, and for that he had to look outside his own people. Reflecting on this, it struck me that maybe this is a reminder that as Christians we’re not called out of the world into some holy huddle, but that it is OK and sometimes the best thing to form partnerships with others (as we have done, for example, with the Big Local). God’s image doesn’t just reside in us, but in all people, just as ‘sin’ isn’t just found in the world but in the church as well.
Father, help us to see and celebrate your image in all people we meet today.
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