On building walls

A tragic wall:

My three sons, sitting against a wall. This picture was taken at a Christmas reunion for my family, but not the one held this last Christmas. Christmas 2006 another wall was built, no extended family Christmas found fruition and the wall's framework grew more solid. Then that wall took on a more finished state with the occurrence of a child's birthday, forgotten by that same extended family. His tears--how could they not serve as mortar? How do I pray about this wall? What would You have spoken over it?

A multi-purpose wall:

Friday was a big day at my school--moving day. All last year we saw blueprints. All this year, we've watched workmen build the expanding facility. Delays, (minor) natural disasters--so many things postponing this day. By Christmas, they said last fall, we'll be in the new facilities. But not until April was the actual Exodus. It even came down to the Thursday inspections approving the already-announced Friday move-in.

But delays still waited in the wings! At first, all looked well, and excitement filled the air as the move was made. Everyone helped all morning, kids carried desks and trashcans, clocks and totes from one side of campus to the other, trekking back and forth out in the beautiful spring sun--but wait! The inspectors are back and up in arms. Why? When we had the move completed and the rooms ready for use, (this just after the lunch feast) we immediately occupied the space and began having classes.

But apparently, this was not as the inspectors intended. The rooms could be furnished, and people milling about to that end, but these rooms were not yet approved for occupation. The inspectors returned and began their assessments anew.

So where are the classes? Well, they're not sitting in those just-moved desks, smelling fresh paint, studying equations against the gleam of new white boards. Ah, there they are--sitting along an old wall in an old hallway just outside the old school office. Their books are in their laps, their gaze lifted high from that ground-level perch to study what their teacher stands and writes on the window that exists between the office and the hallway. The secretary within fields frantic calls while seeing backwards algebra equations magically appear on that glass just above her desk.

Final inspections are completed, and the last word is: classes can finally occupy the new space on Monday. I think about how this place has "re-lived" the story of Your people from the days of Moses through the Pentecost of Acts over the last two years, and how we are now walking parts of the story of Your relationship with Your people that are yet to be, and I am again in awe of Your sovereignty. I myself anticipated this move to be a predictor of what is to come when the great reunion of God's people or rapture or something happens in the days yet to be. As I look on these events in that context, I have to wonder what this unwitting pre-mature occupation is saying. But for the moment, I only ponder it in my heart as I proofread and pray over the words of the day that is. How do I pray about this wall, God? What revelation of Your "manifold wisdom" do You offer through these events in this part of Your church? May Your purposes be fulfilled as You reveal the church's mystery to the "powers and principalities in the heavens" who will learn and then serve You through what they learn.

A wall of warning:

I notice that in my Bible reading today, warning is given about walls that don't really function as walls. These are the walls that are bricks neatly piled, but not secured with mortar. Their lack of support and cohesion is hidden by a "perfect" front of plaster--all looks well until conditions (floods, hail, winds) test the walls. The warning of the wall is given to a church whose "structure" is based on little more than image, whose strength is no strength at all. Then I think of the many places of worship I've attended where such a judgment could easily be made over the walls that contain the congregants. In fact, the walls are crumbling away even now and the churches are disbanding as they realize the powerlessness of the walls that were once falsely called a protection for them. How do I pray about this wall? Do I ask You to send the storm? Is it time for such a prayer? Has the false wall served its purpose fully yet, exposing the folly of all who falsely profess its strength? Is it finished? Certainly, I pray for all who were led to believe this a solid wall, those who never saw its inner workings and have only the exterior from which to form their beliefs. Give such as these vision to search the depths.

A wall revisited:

Now as I look at the family picture again, I see the wall is not a wall at all, but a garage door for a large barn-garage. That's hopeful, I think.

We laughed yesterday. My husband, his visiting friend and I. We sat as I did the bills and lamented the fact that every month some new woe hits our finances--this month it was a combination of taxes, car repair bills and college application fees for our eldest. We wondered at our ever present tendency to look to the next month as the one in which we'll "catch up." Our ever-present cling to hope, it is one of the things that seems to perpetually define us as a family. We laughed because we wondered: is this a thing of beauty or of stupidity?

When that garage door ever opens, I guess we'll know the answer.