January 7, 2005
It frequently happens that one of my children will construct very complex and impressive structures with toy building blocks. Occasionally blessed with the privilege of joining them in their enterprises, I can sometimes personally witness them design and build some amazing things. While I don’t always know what it is that I am looking at, my children have always been able to come up with impressive titles and elaborate explanations.
Sometimes they show me a sky-scraper. Sometimes a spaceship. Sometimes it is the surface of a planet, and sometimes it is a creature that they have created.
Whatever the case, it is a masterpiece each time. And invariably, at the insistence of the inventor/artist, each completed work must be placed in a safe place so that the genius invested by its creator will be preserved.
Sadly, sooner or later, each work meets its demise. Too often a finished piece is taken down and enjoyed as if it is a toy (which, of course, it is although its maker generally forgets that). I have noticed that toys of the Lego genre come apart most inconveniently.
On the other hand, sometimes the project is simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. Someone accidentally steps on it, for example: Ouch! Sometimes it is innocently picked up and put away by a well-meaning parent: Oops! And sometimes a dog, wanting attention, will come and lie down on it: Eww!
The greatest heartaches always come, however, when an existing work contains a piece necessary for the building of another artist/inventor’s project. The currently existing work is dismantled, without regard for anyone else’s feelings but also without any particular mal-intent: it just happens to have a piece the other child wants.
However these tragedies happen, the destruction of treasured creations always translates as anger and grief on the part of their creators (and then also for the parents trying to negotiate wisdom and cooperation among the young inventors).
It also means something important for me and is something in which I am still growing in the context of God’s kingdom. When you lose what you thought you needed and wanted, for whatever reason, how do you begin again?
An important question for us as we each must deal with it in at least small ways (e.g. Lego blocks). But it is especially important when we deal with this issue on a grand scale. The death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the breaking of one’s health, can all leave us asking the question of how to start over.
Of course, this question has inconceivable implications for tsunami survivors, particularly those who lost not only their entire families but their homes and livelihoods as well.
As was said last week, there are no easy answers. But if you are facing heart-breaking loss even now in your own life, there is life still yet to be lived. Granted, it won’t likely be the same as before, but there is still life… and hope for you if you’ll trust that God can and will walk with you through the dark tunnels of despair as you hold His hand in faith.
Consider the magnitude of Job’s loss and know indeed that you have a kindred spirit in him. Yet, in spite of all his sorrow and pain, he would not turn his back on God. In spite of the discouragement that buffeted him, he did not ultimately despair. Having lost his wealth, his beloved family, and his health, as well as being falsely accused by his “friends”, he ended up being a shining example of God’s grace as God helped him start all over.
“If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. You (God) will call and I will answer You; You will long for the creature Your hands have made. Surely then You will count my steps but not keep track of my sin” (Job 14:14-16).
Can you start again when all of life as you’ve known it is lost or destroyed? Can you yet live again when tragedy and hurt come as robbers to take away your joy? Yes. There is One Who will see to it that renewal will come. And when God picks up the blocks of our broken lives, He can put them back together in ways we never imagined.
(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio the past nine years and is the pastor of Pathway Community Church. He and his wife are the parents of four children. He may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).
