Life as a House?

”If God doesn't build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesn't guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap.”  Psalm 127:1 The Message

I’ve been thinking a lot about houses lately…

During this past week the Aussie media have provided extensive “rolling” coverage of the devastation caused by recent record downpours and ensuing floods in southeastern Queensland – incredibly confronting, distruptive and emotional times indeed for so many people, who together with their homes and businesses have quite literally been caught up in the flow of such an unstoppable and destructive force; a surging body of rising water.

As the floodwaters have now begun to subside, we’ve seen coverage of people returning to their family homes – the clean-up has already begun for some. I wonder what proportion of damaged properties will eventually be able to be adequately dried out, repaired and restored?  I wonder what proportion of homes, because of the extent of water damage, will simply have to be totally replaced or rebuilt?

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Almost 10 years ago I watched a movie about a house – it was entitled Life as a House - an American drama about relationships, reconciliation and rebuilding. The movie storyline was based around a terminally ill architect named George (Kevin Kline) and his dream to pull down his tired old coastal shack and replace it by building a new greatly improved and more functional house. Along the way, whilst George’s physical health was deteriorating, and as the building project continued, a number of important family relationships were restored...rebuilt.

I really liked the movie and found it a useful metaphor for my own life, faith and ministry context at the time.

Only the other day I was reading the final few pages of my CS Lewis ‘Mere Christianity’ journal and I came across this quote – quite timely really;

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what he is doing…but presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of…you thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

After the events of this past week I find it reassuring to know that despite the often-changing surrounding circumstances of our lives (most of which we really have no control over) there is a Master-Builder God who is nearer than I may think, who knows what’s going on and what He is doing – in and around me - even if it may not make much sense at the time.

“God wishes to test you like gold in the furnace. The dross is consumed by fire, but the pure gold remains and its value increases.”  St. Jerome Emiliani