The Steeple Chase

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hurches dot the landscape around my home in North Carolina.  It is almost impossible to drive in any direction without passing a church.  There are large churches, small churches, churches made of brick, others made of wood, some old, some new, some occupying street corners while others are surrounded by rolling hills and pastureland.  Some have large congregations, and some have very small ones, some have graveyards while others don’t.  But no matter the church, large or small, brick or wood, in the city or in the country, they all have one thing in common—a steeple.

As a small boy, I can remember seeing these various churches, most of which look the same as they did then, from the front seat of my parent’s car. I could always tell when we were approaching a church because I could see its steeple towering above the tree line or surrounding buildings, assuring everyone that God was still at work despite the hustle and bustle of the city or the remoteness of the countryside.

Atop most of these steeples was a cross, the constant reminder of the price God paid for man’s sin.  In addition to adorning the tops of these churches, the cross served another purpose—a lightning rod!  Since the steeple was the tallest portion of the church, it served to attract lightning strikes, protecting the building by taking the full force of a strike and dissipating it to the ground so the structure and all inside would remain safe and unharmed.  Without that lightning rod, the church building remained at risk for certain damage.

I have thought many times what a wonderful picture of salvation those lightning rods represent and how they serve as a reminder that Jesus took upon himself the full brunt of God’s judgment so that we could be saved from sin’s deadly curse.  In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul reminds us of this fact, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Do you see God’s lightning rod at work in this passage?  The cross lifted Jesus, suspending him between God and man.  When God’s judgment fell, Jesus, himself, bore the full brunt and took upon himself the punishment for our sin.  How fitting and proper it is that we should affix crosses to the steeples of our churches, using them as lightning rods, to serve as the constant reminder of God’s love for mankind and the provision he made to save us from our sins.  The next time you pass a church with a cross on its steeple, slow down and remember what that cross represents. Are you under the protection of the cross today?

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