I started with an idea – rebuilding my life – and a verse. And it ballooned into this. I do not think I can adequately express how profound this is to me. The hope it provides, that God is a rebuilder. So here it is.
I am working on rebuilding my life. That is what happens when tragedy strikes. Earthquakes, fires, tornadoes, strokes, these people gradually rebuild what was here. Or not. I guess the alternative is to die. The fire that devastated the city of Paradise several years resulted in new life for those they decided to rebuild, but for the many others, that life died. So that is why I am working on rebuilding my life.
I have been thinking about that. What do I have to work with? I can’t work construction, at least not like I used to. Maybe in a supervisory role? I tried to work on drawing a plan. AutoCad is something I know. Maybe? But it will take some doing. Right now, I can’t control the mouse or double-clicking very well, which is what autocad is. Maybe something different, maybe a hobby. Or maybe I should work on myself. There were things I liked about myself, and things I didn’t like. What was damaged after my stroke has been a lot of the things I liked. The things I didn’t like, they all came through unscathed. So working on changing me might make sense. Things like empathy and friendships. I do not know. But I am working on rebuilding my life, what that will look like remains to be seen.
As I was thinking about this, I saw a verse in Jeremiah that struck me.
“No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever.” Jer. 51.26.
Jeremiah lived in Israel around 600 B.C. He was a prophet of God, and he foretold what God said was going to happen to the nation of Israel. It was bad news for Israel and he wasn’t very popular. He told the people that Israel it’s going to be overcome by the enemy, Babylon, and everyone will be hauled away to live in exile, because they were not faithful to God. And it happened, Jerusalem fell, the city was burned, and the people were taken away to Babylon. Jeremiah warned the people for 40 years, and he watched it happen. But that verse was not about that. It was not about Israel, but was about Babylon. At the end of the book of Jeremiah, there are a bunch of prophecies regarding other nations around Israel, the final one was a prophecy about Babylon. Where its demise is foretold. That is where that verse came from. “No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever.” It was a judgment against Babylon, and it was about rebuilding. Or in this case not rebuilding. There will not be stones for any foundation, there will be nothing for a cornerstone. Nothing will be rebuilt.
The story goes on. After 70 years of exile, a new king of Babylon sent the people of Israel back to their land. The account of what happened can be found in the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah. It is a story about rebuilding. Today, 2600 years later, Jerusalem still stands. Babylon does not. It is amazing to me that Babylon wasn’t rebuilt. It was the capital of the Babylon empire, which ruled that part of the world. It was home for one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – the hanging gardens of Babylon. It makes no sense, Athens and the cities of the Grecian empire still exist, Memphis of the Egyptian empire still stands, Rome is still Rome. But Babylon doesn’t exist. But no stone for any foundation was used. Desolate. I don’t want that to happen to me.
The good news is that God did not proclaim desolation to Israel. In the midst of all of the warnings and the coming judgment, there was hope.
“This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jer. 29.10-13
What powerful words those are, hope and a future, words that have meaning if you’re rebuilding.
I have a foundation. It was given to me. It is the word of God.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Matt 7.24-25
Even as though the storm is raging, I have a foundation. And I have a cornerstone, it is Jesus.
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 1 Peter 2:6
“the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.” Psalms 118.22-24
I am rebuilding my life. I don’t know what it is going to look like, but I know where I am going to build it. Build on the word of God, set on the cornerstone of Jesus. It is my prayer. I pray it will last and I pray It is not desolate, but beautiful. That is something worth building for.
