Outside Looking In.

Emily's Photo

Things look so different, outside looking in. The kids and I stopped by Elberon Memorial Church on our way to the beach yesterday. There were actually two reasons for this. First, it is an amazing church with some of the rarest stain glass and you could make a photo safari of just a portion of it. Second, the church is an old friend of mine, it never changes or ages in my mind and I remember it being there from the time I was a child. It is a fixed point of memory in an ever changing world.

It never changes in my mind, but visually, the church's colors have changed(woodwork has been painted a bright red, used to be green).  The structure has remained the same though(The original portion built in 1886, long before I graced this earth.). My brother's wedding was at this church, friends' weddings were at this church, I performed my first wedding service at this church and I used to drive by this church on the way home from the train station, on tough evenings, to admire it's architecture.

Emily's Photo

I digress.

Emily's Photo

On our way to the beach, I saw the church and pulled the car over. The kids and I started taking pictures immediately. Our few minutes stop became a half hour and we were still in awe of the structure and grounds. Unfortunately, the doors were locked, so we could not go in.

While taking pictures of some of the stained glass, I explained with excitement how inspirational the glass looked from the inside. The kids had never been in the church and I realized that they were less than impressed by my descriptions. As beautiful as the church was from the outside, I could see in my mind what they could not in theirs, the beauty within. We will be doing another trip to the church, when it is open.

It is simple to judge things from the outside, everything is in the open. The problem is trying to judge things from the inside, especially without truly seeing them.