The Framing of a Building was Raising Up as our Covering

The Framing of a Building was Raising Up as our Covering

 

Recently I had lunch with my good friend Judy, who had just gotten back from visiting her three adult children over the Christmas holidays.  Judy is in her late 70’s and her hands trembled, and tears rolled down her cheeks as she told me that her visit with her children had not gone well.

 

 Judy’s daughter-in-law was angry that she had come to visit them over Christmas and intrude on their privacy.  And her son asked her to leave after giving her a long list of everything she had done wrong over the years as his parent.  She had always deeply loved her son and daughter-in-law and had been a good mother, and she was frightened and confused by their accusations.

 

 Judy packed up, got a motel, and drove over to visit her two daughters who lived nearby. Then Judy’s oldest daughters informed her that she has decided not to call herself a Christian anymore because she had moved on to becoming an agnostic.  She had decided that Christians were phony. 

 

 And Judy’s younger daughter told her that she was leaving her husband and her children and moving in with her exciting new boyfriend, who spends all day playing video games. Also, Judy’s teen-age grandson has overdosed on drugs and is threatening to commit suicide. 

 

Judy is a widow in her late seventies and lonely, as her husband has recently passed away. She and her husband had a good marriage and raised their children to love, serve and trust Jesus Christ. It was their life. They had such hopes for their children, that they would follow Christ.  But now Judy tells me that she feels like she is losing her adult children and grandchildren.  And that it is her job to bring her children back to herself and back to God! But she doesn’t know how. Such a big job for a faltering older woman!        

 

So many Christian parents are confused and frightened because of the choices their adult children are making. Many young adults are leaving their Christian faith. They are choosing a life without Christ and missing out on so much! The spirits of despair and unbelief are everywhere.  Where have all the flowers gone?

 

But yesterday Judy called me to share some good news.  Judy felt that God had spoken to her, helped her in her despair and given her new vision and hope!  Several nights earlier, she had been in her bed, awake in the darkness praying to God about her children.  Why did her son and his wife reject her?  What would happen now that her oldest daughter had turned away from Christ?  And what about her younger daughter and her grandchildren?  All alone now, with arthritis and heart trouble, how was she going to handle living alone without her beloved husband?  Where was family and trust and community? Where was God?  The darkness was closing in around her. 

 

All alone in her bed on that cold dark night, the sick spirits of darkness and fear and hopelessness swept in on her taking over her being. She broke out in a cold sweat with her heart pounding as the evil spirits of anxiety and fear, dizziness and nausea took over her body and soul. 

 

In the eyes of her imagination she could see all her many sins and problems, and her children’s sins and problems - all piling on top of her and weighing down on her and her family.  Desperation took over since she felt too weak and helpless to fight or free herself or her family of these things that were tearing them apart. Messing them up and leading them toward death.  Terrified with this awful vision before her eyes, Judy cried out to Jesus.

 

And then even though she was still afraid, she felt His calming Presence around her.  She could still see the same vision in her imagination- the vision of sins and problems moving in and taking over her family.

 

 But now she saw something new starting to happen.  A solid structure or a foundation was beginning to form around and over her and pushing away the messy problems and sins. As a skeleton gives structure to the body, this Cornerstone and framing of a building was slowly raising up a protective structure around Judy and her family as she prayed for them. Covering them and slowly providing them protection and victory over the evils they couldn’t conquer by themselves. Judy was not alone.  God had been there all the time.

 

 God had given her a Cornerstone, a building not made with hands, a Savior, (Isaiah 28:16-17 and Ephesians 2:19-21) who has the strength to free her from the sins that so easily weighed her down. Jesus is our Cornerstone too.  His job is to fight evil for us and win. To be victorious and raise us up to be victorious with Him. His job is to be our structure or covering from sin.  Our Solid Rock. And our job is to believe in Him and follow Him.