Imagine. You have spent a little more than two months in beautiful, rural Cambodia.  You have had maybe a week (max) of city experience and even less time with just your team.  You and most of your teammates finally get the opportunity you have been waiting for: Angkor Wat. This is one of the seven manmade wonders of the world!  This massive temple holds history, religion, and beauty—all completely unique to Cambodia. 

I am sorry to say it was underwhelming.

We woke up at 4:30am to leave at 5am and see the sunrise over Angkor Wat.  Everyone who goes to Angkor Wat says that you must experience it at sunrise.  Well, the sunrise was actually beautiful, but not because of Angkor Wat.  It was beautiful because God is gracious enough to craft a new sunrise every morning and allows it to shine over his creation.

After taking all the sunrise pictures we possibly could, we spent the next couple of hours exploring the Wat.  As we walked through the ruined, stone buildings filled with writings and sculptures, we found emptiness around every corner.  It was evident that there was something missing: God.  Prae Yesu Cree (God Jesus Christ).  He was not in this temple.

People had come from all over the world to see the remains of something that had been built and then destroyed by man.  People were left in awe and wonder by a significantly less impressive place of worship, in comparison to the place of worship we know at the foot of the cross.  Man made the temple, but God made man.  We are so easily prone to worship the creation instead of the creator.

But believe it or not, the Lord spoke to me at Angkor Wat.  Man creates these gargantuan buildings, but we find the wonder in the intricate, little pieces.  Yet, man is made in the image of God.  This temple mirrors that.  We have a God with enough vision to form the entirety of the universe, but he still pays attention to the details by composing the complexity of the atom.  What an amazing God we serve that we can get lost In His capacity for big and small.

Psalm 96:3-6 says,

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.

For all gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.”

Amen and Amen.