A City Whose Builder And Architect Is God
Have you ever noticed that illustrations of heaven tend to lean heavily on Greek architecture? The pillars and spires might be brighter, and the streets paved with gold, but the forms and styles still look familiar. It makes sense—the ancient Greek temples and forums were gorgeous, a true high point of human ingenuity and creativity. But these styles are human conceptions, whereas Hebrews 11:10 tells us that heaven is a city “whose architect and builder is God.”
Have you ever stopped to consider what it looks like when God himself designs and builds a city?
I was in Dublin recently, walking by the quays where the Celtic Tiger money settled down and grew into rows of shining glass offices and apartments. It all looked very fancy, very expensive, and very unnatural. It all made me want to find a field, or a forest, or any kind of land that wasn’t growing concrete in every direction. I guess I’m not built for city life. But there is one city I know I’m built for, a city I already call my home, even though I haven’t laid eyes on it yet. It’s a city designed by the same architect who planned the fields and forests of nature, and built by the same builder who set the mountains in place and lit up the stars. It’s heaven.
God gave Moses his own specific plans to build the tabernacle, and he gave Noah his design for the ark. In both cases, the architecture was God’s, but the designs still had to be accommodated to the abilities and resources of human builders. So how does God design a building, or a whole city, when he knows that he will build it himself—with the same unlimited power he used to spin the galaxies and the wisdom he used to join the atoms into molecules into beating hearts?
Can you imagine a house designed by the inventor of physics? Can you think of the spires thrown up by the God who dreamed up mountain peaks, or the public squares laid out by the One who came up with the idea of meadows? We see in nature the many homes God has provided his creatures—the cool caverns for his bears, the ornate shells for his hermit crabs, and the colourful coral reefs for a host of his underwater creations. We have seen his boundless creativity, his attention to detail, and his perfect engineering blending seamlessly with the abundant generosity of his artistry. We may not have seen him design a human city yet, but based on everything we know about heaven’s architect and builder, I believe that our Greek-inspired illustrations fall laughably short of the home God is establishing for his people. As the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him”. I know that’s true and I can’t conceive it, but I still can’t stop imagining God’s city. I can’t help it. It’s my home.
