Building to Last

A year ago I stumbled accross the Archbishop's of Canterbury's New Year's Day message 2008.  I found it quite stirring and from time to time I reflect on it.  While the message is one about the environment and the creation of waste by modern society, it is a message that can be applied to a restoration. 

"In a society where we think of so many things as disposable; ...... do we end up tempted to think of people and relationships as disposable?"

"Building to last is something we all understand and if we live in a context where we construct everything..on the assumption they will be replaced before long, what have we lost?"

"God is involved in building to last. ....  He doesn’t give up on the material of human lives.....God doesn’t do waste.  He doesn’t regard anyone as a waste of space as not worth His time.  And so a life that communicates a little bit of what God is like, is a life that does not give up.  That doesn’t settle down with a culture of waste and disposability, whether with people or with things."

 I see this philosophy extending to restoration.  Even after 162 years of use, we are not ready to dipose of the St. John's Cathedral.  If we do what would we have lost?  God is a restoration God because He does not do waste.  He restores, redeems, justifies and saves us through His Son.

The Restoration of St. John's Cathedral might not merely be the restoration of a historic building, it might truly be the restoration of ourselves.