The Palace Without a King

Is there a king in your palace?

Once upon a time, many thousand years ago, there lived a King. This King was kind, wise and generous to all the people in his kingdom. Everyone in that Kingdom loved their King and loved to spend time with him and the king loved to spend time with them too.

When the king died, all the people in that kingdom was really sad. They cried and mourned for many days. “Oh No, our beloved King is gone. We must remember our loving and kind king” They decided to build a palace in honour of him, so that people in the kingdom will always remember him forever and ever.

They placed his coffin in the center of a large piece of land. They were going to build the biggest and most beautiful palace on this piece of land. And so construction of the palace began around the coffin. Everyone was involved one way or another. Everyone.. (almost everyone) was busy doing something to help build this palace. Those who were not busy helping… were BUSYBODY talking about the biggest construction project the kingdom has ever seen. No expense would be spared to make the King’s final resting place the most magnificent building.

As weeks turned into months, the people got more and more excited about building the palace. The more excited they got, the more busy they became. “Where is the window? Come lets build a room here, QUICK we need some stones in the kitchen, How tall do we build it?”

A committee was formed to discuss and decide which is the best bricks to use. Another committee was formed to decide which colours to paint the many rooms in the temple. Another committee was formed to discuss how many rooms and doors should the palace have. EVERYONE was busy… doing something.

The construction of the palace kept them so busy that they actually forgot about the king. They even forgot how he looked like. They did not even miss his presence anymore.

One day, when everyone was rushing to put the finishing touches to the palace, the Chief Architect went on his round to check on the quality of work. He walked around the construction site to inspect the palace. As he was doing his rounds, his leg bumped against a wooden box right in the middle of the almost completed palace. “OUCH!!! Who put this box here??!” he demanded to know. Whilst still in pain from that knock, he brushed the dust off his leg and ordered a worker to throw the wooden box out. The architect didn’t know he had ordered the throwing out of the king’s coffin. The king who was by now - forgotten – hidden beneath layers of dust and time and the busy activities on the construction site.

The one person the palace was built to honour was now forgotten but the temple was constructed anyway.

Could someone build a building and forget why? Could someone construct a palace yet forget the king? Let’s ask ourselves this question. Could we, you and I, come to church and forget why we are here?

The story I told just now was a sad story. About people who got so busy they totally forgot about their loving king they so desperately wanted to remember. It would also be equally sad if as Christians we forget about God in all the activites we do in church? That we become so busy, we forget why we are doing and who are doing them for?It is like a person who walks in a beautiful garden but cannot see the beauty of the flowers around him.

God wants us to worship Him with our hearts. He wants us to lay down on the ground and proclaim Him as our Lord and God. Never to forget Him, but always remember and honour him, in everything we do. Let us not be so busy building the church that we forget we are doing it to worship our Saviour.