It was in midspring, in the month of Ziv, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, that he began to construct the Temple of the Lord. This was 480 years after the people of Israel were rescued from their slavery in the land of Egypt. The Temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was 90 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid in midspring, in the month of Ziv, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign. The entire building was completed in every detail by midautumn, in the month of Bul, during the eleventh year of his reign. So it took seven years to build the Temple.
1 Kings 6:1-2, 37-38

Dear God, I have a couple of thing here. First, I’m surprised the temple wasn’t bigger. My wife and I go to a Catholic Church built just after 1900 in a small town. That church would dwarf the temple described here. This was obviously not a place of corporate worship, but of doing business with you on a personal level. Sacrificing. Praying. Whatever. But it was small.

Second, by my count, from the time of your call to Abraham to the temple being built, about 1,000 years passed. So why do I get in such a hurry? Why do I get so impatient. You taught me a long time ago that I measure things in days, weeks, and months while you measure them in years, decades and centuries. I mean, to put this 480 years in perspective, it will 400 years next year that the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts. (Incidentally, I just looked it up and the Mayflower was slightly bigger than Solomon’s temple.)

Father, help me to get out of my own finite mind and adopt your vision of the world. I’m worried about today’s politics while you are worried about mankind on a grand scale. But what you’ve called me to do is the task you’ve set in front of me while you worry about where the big picture is going. At the same time, YOU care about my present. You care about what is happening now and how this all works out. Thank you for all of this. Help me to let go of my own insights and wisdom and to embrace a perspective that is beyond what I will ever understand.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen