Symbols: How The Stuff of Earth Can Point Us to Heaven

On Pilgrimsarbours blog he eloquently describes the beauty of a house of worship and the transcendence that was intended by it, but often missed. When I was an evangelical christian , I ascribed to the theory of "less is best" and the simplest plainest warehouse we could find would be the "most spiritual" place to gather and worship.
I now find myself visiting the most ornate and beautiful Churches and shrines because of their ability to draw our hearts towards heaven. This time of year is so full of beautiful symbols God has given to stir our hearts and remind us of the great things He has done for us. I am so thankful that I have come to appreciate this 'quality of transcendence' that Pilgrimsarbour describes in his post. Check out his full post but here's a bit of it:

"...I think I always took the statuary, the stations of the cross, and other physical representations for granted. And being young the deep symbolism of these objects escaped me. But now I find myself drawn to the beauty of many of these things, and to Whom and to what they were designed to guide our praise and attention. I suppose I could say that I miss some of them. Protestant churches, in a reasoned bid to make sure that only Christ is glorified, and not man, often have a tendency to swing the pendulum unduly in the opposite direction"