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In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being

Not long ago, my friend Sandra pulled me into the world of dollhouses. It started out as her hobby, but before I knew it, I was knee-deep in miniatures—sewing tiny bedding, laying miniature hardwood floors, installing little windows, and yes… dusting off a half-inch toaster like it was the real thing. (I’ll post photos one day soon.)

One evening, Sandra sent me a photo of her dollhouse. There was a bed in one room and a doll lying face down on the floor in the next.

“I’m house poor,” she said.

I laughed way too hard at that. It was just so perfectly ridiculous.

But this week, as I was folding laundry or doing dishes—I can’t remember which—those words came back to me again.

“House poor.”

It was her way of saying, “My house is complete, but I have nothing here to fill it.”

And that’s exactly what we see in Nehemiah 7:4:

“Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt.” (NIV)

Jerusalem had its walls. The gates were up. Leaders had been appointed. On the surface, things looked in order—but it was quiet. The streets were bare. No children running, no merchants shouting, no footsteps echoing off the stone. The city had been secured, but it hadn’t come back to life yet.

While more than 42,000 had returned earlier with Zerubbabel and Ezra, most of them had settled in the outlying towns and countryside. So here Jerusalem stood—protected, but still empty. Like a body without breath.

Paul puts it plainly in Acts 17:28 when he says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Real life doesn’t come from structure—it comes from God filling what’s been built.

And isn’t that true for us too?

We can organize our schedules, show up to church, keep all the routines in place… and still feel like something’s missing. Because without God at the center, we’re just going through the motions. We’re showing up, but we’re not really living.

Jerusalem wasn’t meant to just be a safe place—it was meant to be a dwelling place. A city filled with worship, community, and purpose.

The same goes for the church.

And the same goes for our lives.

When God fills the space, everything changes.
He brings movement where there was stillness.
He brings purpose where there was structure.
He brings life.

“He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” Romans 8:11 (NIV)

That’s the kind of life Jerusalem needed. That’s the kind of life we need too.