Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, Colorado Springs, CO
"Off we go into the wild blue yonder." Part I.
Many people equate Colorado Springs with the Air Force Academy. When you think of the Air Force Academy you can't help but think of the Cadet Chapel. My next three blogs will take you deeper into this amazing structure.
I have been blessed to officiate at two weddings and a baptism in the chapel, however, it had been a while since I'd made the hike from the visitor center to the chapel. Seeing a picture of the chapel in a magazine and finally having some time on my hands, I made the journey.
If you enlarge the photo you will note that the outside of the chapel consists of 17 spires that reach 150 feet into the sky. Seventeen doesn't really have any biblical significance. I understand that the original design included two more spires but money was an issue.
The chapel is the dominant feature on the academy grounds.
Two important biblical structures were lifted off the ground. The first is found in Genesis 11 where a group of people wanted to make a name for themselves and built a tower into the heavens. The other was a cross.
"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14 ESV
If we stay outside the chapel and view its spires from a distance then all we have is another tower of Babel, a monument to human ingenuity.
To understand the Cadet Chapel we have to move deeper into the structure. The same is true of our places of worship. God invites us not to stand outside but to enter and receive what he has to give us in his Word.
It is inside that we hear of that other structure that was lifted from the earth.
Many people equate Colorado Springs with the Air Force Academy. When you think of the Air Force Academy you can't help but think of the Cadet Chapel. My next three blogs will take you deeper into this amazing structure.
I have been blessed to officiate at two weddings and a baptism in the chapel, however, it had been a while since I'd made the hike from the visitor center to the chapel. Seeing a picture of the chapel in a magazine and finally having some time on my hands, I made the journey.
If you enlarge the photo you will note that the outside of the chapel consists of 17 spires that reach 150 feet into the sky. Seventeen doesn't really have any biblical significance. I understand that the original design included two more spires but money was an issue.
The chapel is the dominant feature on the academy grounds.
Two important biblical structures were lifted off the ground. The first is found in Genesis 11 where a group of people wanted to make a name for themselves and built a tower into the heavens. The other was a cross.
"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galatians 6:14 ESV
If we stay outside the chapel and view its spires from a distance then all we have is another tower of Babel, a monument to human ingenuity.
To understand the Cadet Chapel we have to move deeper into the structure. The same is true of our places of worship. God invites us not to stand outside but to enter and receive what he has to give us in his Word.
It is inside that we hear of that other structure that was lifted from the earth.
(Click on picture to enlarge.)
Text and Photographs ©Copyright 2012 Douglas P. Brauner.
ARR.
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