Good morning…
We were wired by God so very differently. One more this, the other more that. With differences dividing us, neither one of us felt safe being our true self with each another.
Naive to the damage we felt or inflicted, we bulldozed each other back and forth.
God’s light shined on both of us, seeing all sides of our flawed relationship. Quietly defending, we each picked up stones hurled in our direction, and we built our own self-protective wall, a two-sided barrier was built high and built wide. For each of us, at stake was the survival of our gentle, genuine God-given self, so we built higher and higher over the years.
Somehow now I sense we are turning an important corner, looking up to our living LORD with more trusting eyes, not keeping our eyes locked on our side of the story.
From my side of the wall I see God’s bulbs blossoming a bit. I’m not sure how healing looks from the other side.
Sensing the inner strength of the Spirit, I feel myself dismantling my side of the wall, stone by stone. A new hope grows in my heart, “Maybe together we will erect a monument to the LORD living between us.”
Opening my Bible, I am drawn to a guiding story. Two men with a long history of hurt began to take down the wall between them. When the moment was right, one said, “So I am ready to make an agreement with you. We will set up a pile of stones to show that we have an agreement.”
So Jacob found a large rock and put it there to show that he had made an agreement. He told his men to find some more rocks and to make a pile of rocks. (In my case, I sense the “some more rocks” are being found from the dismantling of my wall, which now seems less needed.)
Then they ate beside the pile of rocks. Laban named that place Yegar Sahadutha (Aramaic words meaning “rock pile of the agreement”). But Jacob named that place Galeed (another name for Gilead, a Hebrew name which means “rock pile of the agreement”).
Laban said to Jacob, “This pile of rocks will help us both remember our agreement.” That is why Jacob called the place Galeed (which has expanded to mean a universal cure.)
Then Laban said, “Let the Lord watch over us while we are separated from each other.” So that place was also named Mizpah (which means “a place to watch from”) (Genesis 31:44-49, ERV).
Being watched over by the LORD as we are separated, might there be a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, to gradually heal our sin-sick souls?
It cracks me up that these two men gave different names to the very same rock pile, the rock pile of God’s presence living among them. We may define God’s presence with different words, but it is the very same God watching over each of us.
Dismantling our walls with the help of our Healer, might we gather some of our leftover rocks to pave a pathway forward to God’s higher way?
…Sue…
