Why Would You Build One?

My eye was caught by shades of red in a small square of a brick wall. Bricks aren’t stacked like Legos. They are staggered one row on top of another with the end of a top brick being in the center of the bottom one. Then thinking about why they were built, I kept running full force into a WALL! Sturdy walls have a main purpose: keep out. Even Robert Frost’s iconic Mending Walls has the man on the other side of a repair project state: “Good fences make good neighbors.” That sounded more negative than admiring the beauty required.

Always back track and change perspective. In 122 A.D., Emperor Hadrian began a stone wall between his new Roman colony, now England, and the wild tribes to the north. Its purpose was protection of the colony to ensure growth. That sounded better than I put this up to cut you out. A secondary reason was to establish a boundary. This wall was as far as the empire would go and it marked an area where civilization could grow. Each opposite area is now strong and tours are held through piles of rock that helped make today possible.

Even before Hadrian by about 300 years, Nehemiah rebuilt a necessary wall. He was part of a group of Israelites in exile in Persia under King Artaxerxes. Some Jews had returned to Jerusalem and had sent word city walls were in disrepair. Returning to rebuild was Nehemiah’s purpose. His task was make a useful inspection of need, clear rubble, defy taunts and opposition and set up teams of some to work and some to protect the laborers as needed. He provided a strong inverted sentenced to define his task, “So built we the wall!”

At times each of us needs to build a wall, not for a need to be isolationists. We might require a peaceful moment to restrain choices that come our way as we learn to create our own independent character and strength to withstand assaults. Cracks may appear and we push to reset goals and even enlist others to stand guard with us as we redefine our safe place. At times we feel overwhelmed by surrounding attacks as we claim for ourselves the title mason: a skilled worker who builds with substantial material. Nehemiah set the reason for success, “the people had a mind to work!”

The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand.

Amos 7:7