Walls

Walls

I’ve been hearing a lot about walls lately. Walls, barriers, fences, obstructions are the hot ticket item on the political and social scene. Who would have thought walls would become the obsession of the nation. I remember a poem of Robert Frost about fences and if they make good neighbors. His caution was to be careful of what we fence in and what we fence out.

Walls have historical significance. There is the Great Wall of China, an architectural wonder of ancient times. This 1300-mile edifice was built to keep invading bands of nomads out of imperial China. How about Hadrian’s Wall, the 73-mile Roman built wall that kept out the ancient Britons.

In recent history there is the Berlin Wall. This was a guarded concrete barrier 96 miles long that divided an East and West Germany from 1961 to 1989. I remember that historical event when President Reagan, standing in view of the wall, challenged Mr. Gorbachev to tear down that wall!

There are many more man-made barriers that are now forgotten history. But there is one wall that predates all of the above. It is a wall that is seldom mentioned in the annals of human history. It is recorded in the Bible, a book not often quoted in the sorted affairs of human endeavors.

“The Messiah has made things up between us so that we’re now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance…Then he started over. Instead on continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody.”

Humankind is in desperate need of a fresh start; one that can only come with the help of the wise Master Builder. The fundamental issue is hearts not walls. It’s the man-made walls in the heart that need to be torn down so that there can be a fresh start for a world in need of forgiveness and acceptance.