We have a new neighbor, who in an attempt to protect their new home, put up an unsightly red sign in the front yard stating they have installed Xfinity’s home security system. The owners next door have an equally unsightly sign saying they are protected by ADT. We have another neighbor who put up a sign advising dog walkers to curb their dog. I find myself wondering why someone would spend decades of their life’s earnings for the lovely home of their dreams and then deliberately uglify it. I do believe if I were an educated burglar the security signs would be for me a dare, a challenge, sport. As for the dog sign, it was many, many times larger than what a dog would leave behind.
It seems that we humans often approach a problem with solutions that diminish what we are trying to preserve. After 9/11 in an endeavor to preserve ourselves we voted away some basic freedoms. We might have been safer but our precious values, earned by the blood of our forefathers, were diminished.
Fortunately for us God chose to preserve His values rather than diminishing them. Freedom of choice, the hallmark of His government, could have been sacrificed. He is all powerful. He could have established a world that “would not” because they “could not” rebel. What He would have been left with was a planet filled with beings without love, for love is only love when it is freely given and freely received. Instead He preserved. He gave us His Son that He might solve the sin problem by elevating Jesus on a cross.
The beauty of a home, the nature of a nation, the love of God’s children must be preserved without diminishment.
Written by Roger Bothwell on January 29, 2016
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org