Walls

I cannot get these thoughts out of my head so I must spit them out and be done with it. (i.e.Verbal Vomit) Here we go.

How was it that Noah managed to get all of those animals in a boat the size of one and a half football fields in length without them all killing each other--seriously? I can just imagine the conversation between Mr. and Mrs. Noah:

"You said you were building a boat for us and the kids--we're taking two of what with us?"

And we complain when we get called to nursery or cub scouts-sheesh. I happened across at least part of the answer to that question in verse fourteen and sixteen of chapter 6 in Genesis:

"rooms shalt thou make in the ark. . .with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it"

That makes sense, put walls between the animals. They are animals--they won't last an hour, let alone 200 days in a wooden boat (sidenote--what about the woodpecker and the beaver huh? okay, never mind).

Sometimes, though I think that we are a little (okay, a lot) like the animals on Noah's boat. We are surrounded by literal and figurative walls. Some of them keep us safe, and some of them just keep us separate. Don't believe me? Just try booking the GOP and Democratic Conventions at the same pavilion this November, or invite some die-hard BYU and U of U fans to the same house the day their respective teams face off. Like the animals of old, we put one another in boxes, and socially, mentally, and spiritually place them on the lower, second, or third story tier of our imagination.

Let's start with an example of walls that separate. Once there was a group of nin-kumpoops that thought it would be a good idea to cut off East Berlin from West through means of an actual physical barrier--a wall.

"The Soviet-dominated Eastern bloc officially claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" . . . However, in practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection (yeah, cuz they didn't want to be there) that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period."
(taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall)

This wall that was there for the people's good, to quote "keep them safe" did the opposite. Hundreds trying to escape the dictatorial dominance of the East lost their lives scaling that wall. It was an impediment, a mammoth stumbling-block to the unification and progression of a nation still battered and bruised from the overthrow and usurpation of their government under Hitler's regime. Thankfully, an American expressed the collective voice of the German people with his immortal words when he said,

"we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. . .if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity. . . if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" (emphasis added. taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall#.22Mr._Gorbachev.2C_tear_down_this_wall.21.22)

That wall came down. And thanks to God because if a wall is there long enough it stops appearing to be a barrier and just becomes blindness. Ask the people in Korea if you question that.

We all have walls that need to be torn down. They can be anything. The inability to forgive someone that has hurt us, disgust with our self for our insecurities and perceived failings, pride, greed, envy, unfettered ambition, vanity, jealousy on and on. And it doesn't matter if it is one brick or one thousand, if it's a day or a century old-it is a stumbling block and it separates us from one another and more importantly from God.

And in thinking about this, I realized that the Savior has no walls. Zero. Aside from fishes and loaves of bread he doesn't divide things--he unites them. He tears down walls of separation, and supplants them with walls of safety. Truly as he said, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." (Isaiah 49:16)

There is a story in the Old Testament about the children of Israel rebuilding and fortifying the walls of Jerusalem under the direction of a man named Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a good man--he battled opposition from enemies without:

"What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?"
(Nehemiah 4:2)

and discouragement from parties within: "we are not able to build the wall" (Nehemiah 4:10)

So what does he do?

"from that time forth. . .half of my servants wrought in the work, and the other half of them held both the spears, the shields, and the bows. . .

They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon." (Nehemiah 4:16-17)

They kept one hand building the walls of their home, and one defending it. Like Nehemiah of old we can affirm:

"The work is great and large, and we are separated upon the wall, one far from another. In what place therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither unto us: our God shall fight for us.

So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared"(Nehemiah 4:19-21)

We have got to do the same. Our walls are before the Savior--he is well acquainted with our grief and he will not leave us comfortless. To paraphrase what Sister Wixom said in conference 'you hold fast to that iron rod, and your little ones will hold tight to you.' We must labor in the work before us until that morning when the light of heaven will shine forth and break down the walls of frustration and enslavement that torture mankind.

I hope the walls of your home are a safe refuge for you.