Your Walls are Ever Before Me

Today I'm thinking about walls.  There are good walls and bad walls.  Some protect and shield us while others become barriers we must overcome.  God's Word says, "I will not forget you.  See I have inscribed You on the palms of my hands. Your walls are continually before me" (Isaiah 49:16).

God knows our walls and He doesn't sit outside them and chide us that we're trapped behind a barrier where there appears to be no solution.  Instead, He takes the time to come inside and join us "in the fellowship of our suffering" as He shows us the pathway over the wall or how to learn contentment inside those barriers.

Many in our nation are facing long-term unemployment.  Never have I felt more thankful my husband is gainfully employed.  There are many with no marketable skills and others with great talent that were laid off and continue to search for a job.  Walls.

One of the most painful walls is loneliness.  Moving to a new city, an illness that isolates, a recent divorce that has split family and friends, or a marriage that is distant and cold after the children have left home.  Few things hurt more than the wall between two people who were once best friends and lovers that is now cold and indifferent. 

My cousin's husband recently went to be with the Lord.  God called his name one Friday night while he was sitting at his desk working and today there is the wall of death that separates all of us who love him from our daily lives.  We have beautiful memories and evidence of a life lived well by a godly man who cherished his wife, sons, and family.  A man who loved God fervently and gave his life in service to others. In our minds he was taken too soon but we trust in the wisdom of God's love, even when we do not understand it.  He is now with our Heavenly Father and even though we are not with him, in heaven there are no more walls.  He is now among that "Great cloud of witnesses, cheering on those of us who are still here and remain in the faith."  One day there will be no more walls for the person who loves God and has Christ as his Lord and Savior.  Those who are in heaven and have gone before us are cheering us on and praying that we remain faithful.

So, what do we do with those walls on this side of heaven?  It depends on the wall and its purpose.  I have a cat named Simon.  Simon loves our little granddaughter but he enjoys her much of the time from a safe distance.  She pets him and then when he's had enough, he slips away and hides.  She returns home to her parents but it is only when Al and I have retired to our bedroom that Simon begins to truly miss her.  From up the hall in front of her room we hear cat wails.  He sounds like someone is standing on his tail and he's screaming but it is a strange scream.  He sounds like he's gagged.  The first time it happened I was frightened he might be choking on something and ran to rescue him.  What I find is always a surprise and always the same.  Simon misses his playmate and he is mourning that she's left and so he goes into her bedroom and retrieves her toys and carries them around like a mama kitty with her young.  In the beginning it was a little pillow with a bunny cross-stitched on it that he always picked up and carried.  More recently, it is her very first doll that I bought for her right after she was born.  Simon goes into her room and carries the doll into our room.  Crying and howling all the way down the hallway.  Then he carefully places his "baby" beside our bed and curls up around it.

 

If he can't have our granddaughter, he'll hold on to evidence she'll come back to him.   Simon has learned that he can't just sit and wait for the barrier between he and our granddaughter to go away.  Even when a wall is a barrier, there is activity behind it. He searches out our other cat Salli, and they wait together. Like Simon, we are not to wait behind our walls alone and our wait is an active wait.

And while we wait, God waits with us.  Simon carries around a little doll to remind him that our granddaughter will return to him.  God inscribes us on the palms of his hands. Our names and faces were put there with nails by Roman soldiers as they nailed Christ to the cross.  It was Christ's love for us that marked his hands with our image and He will never forget us.  He sees each wall and each barrier we face.  Invite Him to join you as you wait - together.  Your walls are always before Him and He waits WITH you.  You can count on it. There are others who wait with you as well. "His mercy is new for you again this morning.  Great is His faithfulness."

Comments

[Uggs clearance]

Your walls are always before Him and He waits WITH you. You can count on it. There are others who wait with you as well. "His mercy is new for you again this morning. Great is His faithfulness."

[freelance writing]

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