I really enjoy travelling when I can and one of my favorite places is Bath, England, which I’ve visited twice. Bath is almost a 3-hour drive west of London and a great place to spend a weekend. The relatively consistent Georgian architecture in the city is amazing, there are lots of interesting shops to visit, including along the Pulteney Bridge, and certainly a lot of history. What the city is really known for, and what it is named for, are the Roman Baths that have been there for over 2,000 years.
Built by the Romans around AD 60 and in use until about the 5th century, the Roman Baths are a symbol of the geographical breadth and technological achievement of the Roman Empire, the greatest civilization the world had ever seen. Britain was about as far away from Rome one could go and still be in the Empire, and the city was almost like a resort for Roman soldiers to help them deal with being stationed so far from home. The Romans believed the hot waters of the baths contained magical blessings from the goddess Sulis, and much later in the Victorian Era, the British would drink the hot spring water believing it had healing properties.
The baths themselves were an impressive engineering accomplishment for the time. In addition to a complex series of baths and springs, a temple was built alongside to facilitate the worship of Sulis and other gods. One of the most amazing things you learn when visiting the baths is that many of the pools were lined by the Romans with interlocking copper tiles, and that many of these are still waterproof today!
But, as great as Rome was, and the baths were, it is now just ruins. The gods worshiped at the baths are mostly forgotten by the modern world. Over time, the Roman Baths were completely abandoned and buried, only rediscovered centuries later. The springs were used in the early 1700s, but much of what we can now see of the Roman Baths was not excavated until the late 1800s and early 1900s, but they remain in ruins.
What I like better about visiting Bath is what you see when you look up from the Roman Baths: Bath Abbey, one of my favorite buildings. Like the stone from Daniel’s vision that destroyed the image of this world’s kingdoms and “became a mountain that filled the while earth”[1], the Abbey to me symbolizes the expansion of God’s eternal church, and when you look up at the Abbey from within the baths, it almost seems to have risen right out of the ruins.
Mankind likes to celebrate our achievements, our breadth of knowledge and technological achievement, but the view of the Abbey from the ruins of the Roman Baths reminds us that all human civilization will one day be less than ruins. Even Bath Abbey won’t last forever, but the church it represents will, in a new earth. God will discard this world, which will “wear out like a garment” and He will “change them like a robe.”[2] Starting over, God will create a new, perfect world where all of our accomplishments will seem as nothing in comparison, and where we will be able to create even more amazing things as reborn children of God, giving God all the glory.
Until then, thinking of Bath, England reminds me that everything we see here is temporary, no matter how impressive it seems. That all of our work here should be done for the glory of God, as it will be in heaven. That everything man accomplishes here won’t last, but that God’s church is eternal.
Amen.
Driving Toward the Morning Sun 