Roads and Ruins

I woke up this morning and found an email in my in-box that surprised me. I felt like I was hearing a long lost voice...an echo whispered long ago and it just now bounced off the back of the canyon wall and reached me.

The email reaffirmed a deep belief of mine: God restores and rebuilds. Ancient ruins and roads are reopened again through him. What has come to ruin through and by neglect, fear, and disconnection can be usable and passable again.

There have been some ruined roads in me. Winding, narrow places that have become so overgrown with weeds and debris that the foot path wasn't even visible anymore. I considered posting a sign—No Trespassing.

God will restore and rebuild, but I don't believe any of these roads will look like they once did. They will not follow the same courses and have the same resting places. Mile markers will have to be moved and changed. Signs will have to be rewritten and repositioned. But there will be a road again.

A road that won't end in a drop-off.

My dwelling place had fallen into a state of disrepair—walls broken and falling. Rafters were decaying and foundations crumbling. I considered posting a sign—Don't Enter.

The ruins will be inhabitable again. But the interior of the house will have to be restructured. A new floor plan revealed. Rooms will be rearranged and windows and doors will be opened in different places. Walls will be reestablished and reinforced. There will be a house again.

A house that will be beautiful and strong by his measure and definition, not mine.

You'll have to excuse me. I need to take down a couple of signs.