Building With Love

Last Sunday the visiting minister informed us that he would be preaching about barns. That made me sit up a little straighter!

He told us about a few different barns that he has observed over the years, some that have collapsed, and some that are still standing strong.

He made some comparisons. In his analogy, the barn as a whole is the Church. A warm and safe place of refuge from the elements.

The posts, beams and braces are the people. The actual structure is us. Without people, there would be no church.

The roof is Jesus' blood, spread over the framework and protecting it from decay.

The nails are love, holding it all together.

After painting for us a picture of a perfect barn, he introduced some reality.

Storms come, time passes, and the barn starts to show some signs of age. A board comes loose, letting a little bit of rain in, which makes a few nails rust out, rotting a few other boards . . . if left to itself, the process will continue until the roof begins to sag noticably. Eventually the barn will start leaning to one side or the other, and at that point, everyone is watching and waiting for it to come crashing down. We all know the signs, and what the inevitable outcome will be.

Just one board. That's all it takes to make the whole barn collapse. Not right away, it happens so slowly that the board itself probably never knows what a chain reaction it caused.

Just a few nails gone. A little bit of love is lost between two church members . . . that surely won't make everyone else pull apart will it?

Then we heard about fixing a sagging roof. Jacking it back up to it's original perfect straightness. Adding more bracing, more nails. A project yes, but not an overly time consuming one. Just a weekend project, really.

Maintenance. A nail or two here, an extra board there, goes a long way in keeping a barn useful and in good shape.

The parallels are obvious enough that I won't elaborate on them.

~~~~~

My mind wandered a little bit. I pictured a barn, for the most part sturdy and strong. Filled with hay and contented animals. A leaky piece of tin, a couple of boards pulled away . . . and a farmer with a determined expression and hammer in hand striding in.

He climbs up on the roof, and yanks off the offending piece of metal. Then he's on to the boards who are no longer functioning as they ought to be. Off they come and land on the ground with a thud. The farmer then carefully inspects the barn, removing a few other pieces that have ceased to do their job of protecting the interior from damaging storms. Finally he stands back with a satisfied look, and says. "Now there are no more holey pieces of metal, or warped boards left on my barn! Every part is in good condition!" And with that, he turns and leaves.

But the barn! Where there had been leaks, there are now gaping holes! The repair job is not finished, but only begun. The barn is not stronger, but weaker. This farmer, is a fool, and his barn will only fall down all the faster thanks to his 'mending' method. The holey metal did need to be replaced, the boards needed a few more nails. But this farmer's manner of repair was only damaging to the structure.

~~~~~

Then a verse came to mind, 'Every wise woman buildeth her house; but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands." Proverbs 14:1

It's so easy to act just like the farmer that I imagined. Too often I find myself doing the very same thing in my home. I see a problem that needs to be fixed. But when I jump in and try to remove it, I just make it bigger. Feelings get hurt, and I find myself to be the biggest offender when it's all over with.

"I was just trying to help."

"If you wouldn't have . . . "

"It needed to be dealt with."

"It was his/her problem that started it all in the first place."

~~~~~

Maybe if the farmer would have been carrying some nails in his hand when he went out to 'fix' his barn, the result would have been different.

Maybe if I would carry love in my heart . . . maybe if the church would remember to love a little more . . . maybe some of our results would be different too.

"And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8

Do you know the 11th commandment?

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." John 13:34

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." 1 Corinthians 13:13