New Way to See

Gargoyles. I would not normally be attracted to gargoyles. This is not officially a gargoyle since it is not a water spout. It is technically a grotesque figure. But I like to call all the sculptures on the outside of buildings gargoyles. Mostly because I like the word.

Anyway, I took this picture while standing at the top of Notre Dame. Which happens to be a church. This figure is perched on the top of a Holy temple. A place of worship. A Church.

Gargoyles seem so gothic to me. Sort of scary. Evil? Maybe not evil, but scary. The whole goth scene, to me, was about dark teens parading around town in long black coats and black fingernail polish. I had a chance to change my thinking when I went to Paris. Notre Dame is pure goth. It has grotesque figures perched atop all its walls. It has long, spired designs enshrining its doorways. It has gargoyles channeling water from the rooftops out their mouths onto the street below. It is quite extraordinary. I kept having to remind myself this was a church. The ruts in my mind regarding gothic icons kept wanting to pull me toward fear, or at least apprehension.

Notre Dame was built over several decades starting somewhere around the 1400s....give or take a few hundred years. My history facts are muddled at the moment. Building Notre Dame took time, money, and intensive labor. Over a few hundred years. It is amazing to me.

Standing at the front doors looking up, then standing at the top looking down I started to see things differently. I started to get a feeling for the magnificence of it. What were the thoughts and prayers of those hands and hearts that built it? Taking time to do something right. Believing in the dreams of those before you. Placing "guards" around your Holy arena. Carving out a safe haven for worship and glorifying God.

I can be so limited in my view of the world, let alone in my view of God Almighty.

I pause to ask myself, do I know the dreams of those before me? Am I working in tandem with others to hold the same values? Am I using all my resources to glorify God? How are my conditioned mind ruts keeping me from seeing other truths?

I praise God today for all the saints before and behind. I praise God for all the beauty of nature and the gifts of men.

I praise God I can see things differently.