This week the Marble Arch Mound closed for the last time. Built to draw visitors back to a post-Covid London it never quite lived up to expectations. Costs spiralled from £3m – £6m and the promotional pictures didn’t quite match the reality. One visitor commented that it was ‘the worst thing I’ve done in London’. Hardly the ringing endorsement the council had been hoping for. It just goes to show that building big to make a statement isn’t always a good idea.
The Bible records a spectacular example of this. People at the time decided they wanted to ‘make a name for themselves’ by building a tower that would ‘reach to the heavens’. It didn’t go well and the project was never finished. The problem is that we were not created to make a name for ourselves, but rather a name for the God who created us. Many of us bristle at the very idea. Is God so pompous and proud that he needs us to stroke his ego? Quite the opposite. In Jesus we see the character of God truly revealed, a God so humble that he washed his disciples’ feet and died on a cross. It’s only when we understand the depth of his love for us that we can stop trying to exalt ourselves and let him do it for us.