Building Walls

Rebuilt

It can be really difficult sometimes to see God’s image in the people we come in contact with.  The checkout clerk at the store, he does his job nothing more, no smile, no hello, the only words he speaks being the amount you owe for your small collection of goods.  Why is he like that, why does showing welcome to a stranger seem so impossible to him?  Does he think he is better than others?  Does he fear what others will think of him, if they see below that solid impenetrable wall that he hides in the depths of? 

Maybe that’s the problem, walking through every day we only see the walls built up on the outside, sometimes brick, sometimes stone or wood, but still they are walls.  You can’t see through them, or around them, all you can see is what the person hangs on them.  Sometimes they may dress them in beautiful clothes, other times they may be rags.  Sometimes the walls are constantly moving and changing, other times they are still and solid not giving to any passing force.  Sometimes you may see a smile or a hello but other times just blank eyes refusing to give clue to what lays behind. 

I think we all have this set of walls we instinctively build around the mansion of our souls.  The only thing is how thick do we build those walls?  How do we decorate or display them?  I love and am amazed when I come in contact with someone who has somehow conquered the age old desire to build those walls and has completely or at least mostly obliterated those walls.  Instead you get to see huge bay windows and doors, breath taking artwork adorning the rooms within.  These people let all see the beautiful bright soul that lived within the mansion of their being.  Outside, may be ordinary or unusual,  but inside you get a full view of the beauty of the soul that is within. 

When Christ stated to let your light shine these are the people who have completely and ultimately conquered this task.  They let it shine like a bright lighthouse on a rocky shore.  Through the storms that stir they still shine to all who see them.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

The Beginning Or The End

On the Way

I guess this is the beginning, if a beginning is possible or an end.  Can anything truly have a beginning or an end?  Only God really knows, he thought us into being before our parents ever met.  He planned out our lives in the darkness of nothingness before the starting line was even drawn.  After we are at our end, our spirit and memory will live on beyond the crossing of the finish line.  We will then wait for the reunion with the Host and all those we have left behind.  We really have no control over the beginning of the story or its end.  Only what we make of the middle of the story, can we have effect over how the path travels and turns.  Decisions are brought before us and we make a choice. 

Choice!  That would be probably the most important aspect of our creation, the fact that God gave us choice.  I ponder on occasion why did God give us such an open book?  Why create a masterpiece that has the choice to let itself be destroyed?  I like to compare it to the character of a robot.  Robots have on choice, no ability to decide on their own.  They can only choose from the parameters their creator has given.  Their creator gives them limited decisions within the guidelines of what they are requested to do.  They cannot object or refuse.  Do not know to question or debate.  They do what is asked and nothing more.   To me that seems like a shallow and very hollow way of existing, if I would have been a robot.  Perhaps that is why we are not robots.  God made us in his image. 

What does that mean, to be in God’s image?  Does it mean that we have two legs like him, two arms and fingers and toes?  That we have eyes, a nose and a mouth?  Are these really the things that define us to be in his image or is it something more, something deeper. 

These are thoughts that run through my head.  Churn and spill out at all hours of the day and night. I seek out the answers and wish for all who will read to seek them with me.  My Savior lives and I seek Him with all that I am.

“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.” Psalms 139: 13, 14