Embracing God's Call: The Importance of Sacred Spaces and Community in Jeremiah 29:6

Author: Dc. Ted

Jeremiah 29:6 talks about God’s people taking wives and having sons, giving their children in marriage, multiplying and not decreasing. The chapter goes on to encourage God’s people to seek the welfare of the city where God as sent them, praying to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, God’s people will find their own welfare. 

I have been struck lately by the emphasis God places on the places where he has placed his people. The above passage in Jeremiah and the wider scriptures indicate that we didn’t place ourselves in our spaces. That fact that God placed me somewhere gives it special importance in my mind and heart. The plan of God for our lives will unfold in the place where he has placed us. This has encouraged the cultivation of gratitude in my heart. Rather than being insensitive, I am more grateful for the people, the sites, the sounds, the activity, the buildings and structures unique to where we gather together as God’s people on a weekly basis. I think fondly on the times I have been able to gather with the special people God has placed in my life in the particular house of worship to which he has called me.

Secondly, in considering our place of worship, I have been struck by the fact that God places particular importance on the place to which he has called us because that is where we will initiate some of our most profound acts of worship and obedience as human beings in covenant relationship with God. Our house of worship is the place of confirmations and baptisms, marriage and funerals, breaking bread together and receiving the body and blood of Christ. Truly, we walk on hallowed ground when we step into the site of some of our most sacred interactions with God and man throughout the year. 

Finally, I am struck by the importance I discern in scripture that God places on the area that surrounds the principal domain of God’s people, the area that surrounds their houses, churches and countries. Their wellbeing is our wellbeing. What an incentive to get out and seek the blessing of those in our neighborhoods. Somewhat introverted and retiring by nature, this thought has impacted my own desire to cultivate relationships with neighbors and merchants who surround my personal residence. Regarding the neighborhood surrounding my church, getting out of my comfort zone and interacting with those who were formally strangers to me has led to surprising insights and personal growth as well as growing connections and insight into the life experience of others; those who have always been close but out of sight and mind before the effort was made to connect.

Therefore In light of scripture, as we the people of God find ourselves in the sacred spaces where he has led us, one of the blessings we have is that of being called to faithfully steward the sacred site where some of the most holy and intimate acts of human communion with the divine this side of heaven will take place, God willing now and for future generations to come.