Gratitude to Jesus can be spoken, but it can also be built. We can thank Him not only with our voices, but with the structures of our lives. Sometimes gratitude looks simple — saying “thank you,” quietly, repeatedly, to God, to Jesus Christ, and to the people around us. But there are also deeper, more structural forms of thanksgiving, where an entire life becomes an offering of appreciation for His atoning gift. Human beings have always expressed gratitude this way: through temples and monuments, cathedrals and memorials, works of art and acts of devotion. These are not merely objects — they are embodied thank-you’s, built into the world.
The work I am doing in building pieces of Zion has begun to feel like that kind of gratitude — not just a project, but a living thank-you offered to Jesus Christ. It is like building a monument, not in stone, but in relationship and memory and hope. Each piece of Zion I build grows out of something He has done in my life: a mercy received, a rescued moment, a kindness remembered, a miracle that arrived quietly, or a person through whom His love reached me. These become living altars of gratitude, not to glorify myself or my effort, but to honor Him. And in each of these acts of recognition I try to see the person or experience through the light of Matthew 25:40 — “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these… ye have done it unto Me.” In that light, every remembered goodness is not only about the person themselves, but about Christ present within the encounter.
I intend to build two thousand of these pieces of Zion — two thousand altars of gratitude, each one rooted in a memory, connected to a real human life, and paired with a song that resonates with the spirit of that moment. Together they will form a kind of spiritual architecture: a cathedral of remembrance, a map of grace traced across the years of my life. Each altar will be small and specific, yet part of a much larger pattern of thanksgiving.
Among these many pieces, one stands apart in a special way: the Zion Coalition itself. Zion Coalition is both one of the two thousand altars and the framework through which the rest will come into being. It is the tool, the story, the organizing structure — the workshop of gratitude that enables the others to cascade outward. Through Zion Coalition I will identify these two thousand things for which I thank Jesus Christ, and from each remembered gift I will build outward, shaping it into a living piece of Zion. In that sense, Zion Coalition is itself an offering of gratitude, while also being the scaffolding that allows gratitude to multiply and take form in the world.
In this way, my thanksgiving to Jesus does not remain only in words. It becomes iterative, generative, architectural. It becomes a lifelong act of building — a city of remembrance, raised not from ambition, but from love and gratitude for the One who has carried me, redeemed me, and continues to shape my life through His grace.