Construction on new apartments in Jerusalem is ongoing and necessary. There is a Scripture in the Bible that describes Jerusalem as a "city compacted together." I continue to be amazed at the changing face of this city, especially when I compare photos from when we first arrived here in 1980. Our own neighborhood has completely changed since my children were little. It used to be that shepherds would bring their flocks into the fields around our building to graze on the land. They still bring them, but the poor sheep find little grazing grounds.
Since I walk nearly everyday for exercise, I am able to check on the progress of the new apartment complexes going up all around us. Even before the entire building is completed, families move in to their apartments.
I am taken with the simplicity techniques of this country, utilizing the old way of construction that is common for this region: rope pullies for plastic buckets to bring construction materials to a higher level, wheel barrels for transporting of supplies, rocks and old wooden beams used to support the structure under construction, etc.
These old wood pieces are used to support the structure of a building as the cemet is setting and bricks are put in place. They are the first thing to go up and one of the last to come down before the Jerusalem stone facing is put into place. The splintered and weathered beams are used over and over, and transported from building site to building site, so that after awhile, they themselves look pretty useless - except for this purpose of being a "support beam." So much so, in fact, that at the annual Lag b'Omer, children go to these sites and gather the old beams to build a huge bon fire. Sometimes, however, after a site is completed, these same beams will sit in a huge pile through the winter elements and look like they've been completely forgotten -- until the next construction project gets under way when they are gathered up and used once again.
One day as I passed a pile of these discarded gray beams on one of my walks, I realized that my life has been like that: a support beam. I take great satisfaction out of being one of those used to support an ongoing structure being built, and know that my life is not represented as the building itself, the lovely interior, or the beautiful Jerusalem stone facing. I prefer to consider myself as one that comes alongside of another who needs my support, and discarded to a "pile" after its use, only to be picked up later by another for the same purpose.
I think submission to God's purposes for my life have often looked like I have been discarded in a pile of "throways," when in fact, He is preparing to use me as a support in another up and coming structure site.
So be it. I am content, and resting in His shalom through the winter elements, meanwhile.
