These days, the word wall is getting thrown around non-stop. It is supposed to keep unwanted people out and protect those who are inside the wall. There are walls everywhere, around homes, abbeys, and castles too. They are intended to keep folks out, but don’t they also keep folks in?
A wall keeps things in. A retaining wall in yard or garden keeps the dirt from being washed away. It keeps dirt out. In Ireland, you can see ancient stone walls everywhere, though rarely more than about 4 feet high. Those walls separate one field from another and keep the sheep in that particular pasture. These walls, however, rarely block one’s vision of the surrounding world, they only serve to retain or delineate something.
In our own lives, we build walls between ourselves and those who might get too close to us. We hide behind those walls and think we are safe. We are not safe, we are trapped! Anything that keeps us from seeing the world around us traps us into one way to see things. We all have these walls, we build them emotionally when we are hurt or afraid. We just cannot let that happen to us again, whatever hurt or scared us. The problem is that we are trying to wall up something that simply cannot be walled up. Our feelings and emotions will come out, leak around or overflow the wall every time.
When Christ died on the cross, it was said that the veil in the Holy of Holys was torn apart. It had been used to hide the priest and God from the rest of the world. That simply won’t work with Christ. He was, He is God and there can be no veil, no wall between God and us. It can be frightening to take down a wall. In my lifetime, the Berlin wall was erected and then taken down. Tearing it down made it simple for people to see each other again but it was scary to tear it down, to let in (or out) the unknown.
What walls have you built? What is it that you don’t want to get to you? Or who is it you don’t want to get to you? Maybe, just maybe, those walls are keeping you trapped and not protecting you like you might think. In Christ, no walls are needed since they interrupt the flow of love within us and through us to the world. Take a breath and start tearing down the walls between you and the rest of the world. Do it one brick at a time if you need to, but let the light in and see the world. By the way, if you have tried to build a wall between you and God, I have good news…God has been inside the wall with you always.
TMM