Higher Than the Heavens

Look up. Way up. Like higher up than you’d ever look to see the tip-top of a building. And if your eyesight is good enough, you might be able to see the spire at the top of this grand glass structure.

This is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates– the tallest building in the world.

Don’t you think it’s special that we get to have a fifteen hour layover here on our way home from India? I hardly even knew this place existed. Now, here we are at a tourist hotspot in one of the richest parts of the world. Can’t you see dollar bills in the trees over there?

Let’s go explore!

Have you noticed how many different ethnicities gather here to gape at this impressive manmade wonder? How many languages can you hear? There is more variety than Arabic and English. Can you believe we’re actually in a land of deserts, camels, and men with turbans and white robes? This is a city with palm trees, fresh sunshine, and light air on the coast of the Persian Gulf. It boasts of the world’s largest, best, and most luxurious, whether that is in Ferraris, entertainment, shopping malls, hotels, skyscrapers, or cuisine.

Everywhere we look, we see incredible wealth. And just the day before yesterday, we visited the extreme opposite–a slum in the heart of Hyderabad.

There, houses consisted of bamboo and tarps, barely large enough to hold a cot and a few shelves. There, children sat on a dung floor at the school where we had to duck to get through the doorway. In that slum, mothers scrubbed laundry on rocks and cooked curry over open fires, happy to get at least one meal a day. In that country, city folks travelled with ox carts or auto rickshaws, not limousines. There, any body of water was murky brown or green while here, the Burj Khalifa Lake sparkles clear blue, reflecting all the dazzling glass around it.

Here we see tourists in sunglasses, floppy hats, and sandals. They pull out phones for selfies everywhere. They sit and smoke shisha with long tubes that remind me of breathing tubes in hospitals. They dine on floating docks. Somehow, I feel awkwardly out of place in this land of luxury and sophistication. I couldn’t live here. I think I would feel more at home squished in concrete apartments or bamboo huts in Hyderabad than here in these palaces.

How is it possible that the world can be so vastly different from one area to the next? How is it fair that Emaar stocks mind-boggling amounts of wealth into all these structures and tourism while in another country, starving people drug themselves to numb the physical pain of breaking rocks with hand and chisel in a quarry? There’s so much to ponder.

We have walked for a few hours now, soaking in the sights and sounds. This experience has already been worth it, even if the tickets to visit the top of Burj Khalifa were all sold out. In fact, this way, we’ve saved a lot of money and seen much more.

The backpack on my stinging shoulders feels much heavier than only twenty pounds by now. Thanks for carrying it for me some of the time. The sun is slipping behind the skyline. Are you ready to watch the lights and fountain show?

As darkness falls, string lights around the manmade lake begin to glow. The rows and rows of dark windows on the skyscrapers around us light up. We squeeze against the railing as crowds gather around us, waiting. Like the thousands of other tourists, we take pictures.

Then, music rolls forth from speakers located all around the lake. The great Burj Khalifa flashes with colored lights, transforming it to a massive screen. Fountains shoot out of the lake, dancing and swaying to the rise and fall of the swelling music of “Esmaha Dubai”. As the Arabic words spill over the spraying mist, I gaze up and up and up where colorful patterns chase each other up and down the Burj Khalifa. I hold my breath in awe.

What does God think about all this wealth and glory and show? What does He think of Burj Khalifa and the tourists who come to bow at its feet? They don’t literally do that, and yet I wonder. I know what He thought about the Tower of Babel. Was that tower anywhere near as tall as this one? That tower didn’t have lights and fountains and music to enhance its glory. But even there, God moved with anger against the builders at Babel and confused their languages, ending all progress on the building.

Now, people of all those different languages have gathered again, not even that far off from where the original Tower of Babel must have stood. Here looms a magnificent structure, pointing up at the heavens, but who gives glory to God? What if this music was to worship God instead of Dubai? How much grander it would be!

The music ends with a dramatic crescendo and then all falls silent. The tower’s lights are subdued now, but glimmer steadily to illuminate its architecture. The crowds around us disperse and I wiggle out of the corner in which I was wedged. We ooh and ahh about the show, marvelling at how it all works. I voice my thoughts about God and we talk about how even something as grand as this does not compare to the greatness of God. Human inventions will never surpass God’s.

Let’s just wait here and see if there’ll be more action soon?

Sure enough, in only about 15 minutes, the skyscraper and fountains become alive again. This time it’s a different arrangement of lights. Different music. And since it’s growing darker, the contrast between the night sky and lights increases.

For the next few hours, while we explore the night scenes of the area and relax on a floating dock, eating scrumptious pita bread and hummus, the show erupts with a new display every fifteen minutes. The fountains leap higher and swirl with colored lights. And then laser lights from the tower zip through the air. This transforms it all to another level. As I watch, I wonder if I’m really still on earth.

It seems as if a fourth dimension has been added. My eyes and brain cannot figure out all the dizzying lights and water anymore. I can’t see the Burj Khalifa itself in the darkness–only the lights waving and rolling across and around it.

We talk. The lapping water rocks the dock gently. Fires burn happily in their pits on a restaurant rooftop. My heavy backpack sits on the floor at my feet, and I lean gratefully against the back of my chair. Again I tilt my head and look up. Even farther up. Past the tourists. Past the string lights. Past the palm trees. Past the fountains. All the way to the tip of the Burj Khalifa. But my eyes don’t stop there. I look up at the heavens.

Somehow even this selfish, proud world with its attempts at glory and pomp stirs my heart with adoration for the God I serve. Ironic as it may seem, I think this night has given me a better hint of what heaven will be like. No, there will be no Burj Khalifa. But there will be thousands of people and other breathtaking displays, dimensions, mansions, and beauty much grander than this. There, everyone will adore Him. God is not outdone. He reigns higher than the heavens. Be exalted, oh God!

Photo Credits: most photos by marPmedia