Only the 45th . There are 73.
As I peer over downtown Atlanta from my room at the Westin Peachtree Plaza, I realize I am above almost everything else. Even among most of the other skyscrapers, I’m higher. Lights blink atop summits, warning aerial passersby: “I am here! I am here!” Looking down, matchbox cars speed along toothpick roads.
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and
a tower with its top in the heavens…."
~ Genesis 11:4a
How much higher can we go? This Westin opened in 1976 as the tallest hotel in the world (over 700 feet), and was Atlanta’s tallest building for 11 years.
The tallest man-made structure now is a skyscraper (still under construction) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It already claims 2,000 feet, and is still climbing to some secretive height. It will house 30,000 homes, nine hotels, a park, a mall, and even a lake.
"…and let us make a name for ourselves."
~ Genesis 11:4b
But competition is stiff. Other buildings, already under construction or proposed, brag of greater heights upon completion. The "Ultima" Tower proposed for San Francisco would be over 2 miles high and house one million residents. (Interestingly, it is modeled from a God-design—African termite nests).
How much more attention do we need? Who will be the highest, the one looking down on all others, the one looked up to by all others? How much more can we accomplish with our concrete and steel, glass and aluminum?
Will our towers reach Heaven?
We can never reach God by building ourselves up. He never expected us to go higher and higher and get louder and louder to grab his attention. He doesn’t want us to work our way up to Him—He chose, and continues to choose, to come down to us.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
~ Genesis 11:5
Or are we trying to BE gods ourselves? With enough engineering skill and construction know-how, we can figure it out on our own. “Me do it all by m’self.”
Well, sometimes it appears we CAN do it.
I look at new buildings going up outside my window. Cranes over 500 feet high are circling other buildings, gently placing more concrete blocks higher and higher. People all around are at work within the completed cells of the skyscraper office buildings. Functioning. Running. Efficient. A testament to man’s ability?
Then GOD scattered them from there all over the world.
And they had to quit building the city.
~ Genesis 11:8
But the idols we erect to ourselves in our high places are not safe.
On a Friday night two months ago, March 14, an F2 tornado shattered the illusion of our independence. The Westin hotel lost over 100 windows and the top swayed several feet.
We may look powerful, but we’re vulnerable. To a suicide pilot. To a dropped lit cigarette. To a growling earth-tummy.
To a furtive glance. To a prideful boast. To a grumbling tongue.
Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to Him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
~ Matthew 4:8,9
The devil knows what tempts us on our high mountains. He glitters the gold of the world before us, promising it is ours, if we only will fall down and worship him.
Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan! For it is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.'"
~ Matthew 4:10
So though I enjoy the view on this visit and benefit from the God-given ingenuity of men smarter than me, I won’t seek satisfaction in them. I admire the created things, and even marvel at them, but I save my worship and fullest adoration for the Creator.
I zoom down the high-speed elevator to ground level. From the altitude of standing on my own two feet, He still lifts me high upon a Rock that is higher than I, inside the strongest Tower against all enemies.
My satisfaction doesn’t come from making a name for myself, but on making much of His Name.
Because at my lowest point, on my knees, I reach the Highest.
~ Lisa
From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the LORD is to be praised.
The LORD is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
Who is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high?
~ Psalm 113:3-5
You, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
~ Psalm 97:9
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