In the beginning, God tasked Adam and Eve to “fill the earth and the subdue it”—bring the order and glory of the garden to the chaos of the wilderness outside. In other words, as my friend Chad Bird says, “to expand the sanctuary of God until it eventually covered the entire earth” (The Christ Key, 118).

Our hearts crave sanctuary because God created us for sanctuary. But not just any sanctuary; His sanctuary. The beauty we enjoy on earth, the sanctuaries we create on earth, are but a foreshadow, a glimpse, a whisper of what we will experience when Christ returns to usher in the new heavens and the new earth.