A brick wall
Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! (2 Timothy 2:8-9, ESV)
A young bricklayer in Italy was desperate to leave the Christian home he had grown up in. When the opportunity to work in another town presented itself, he could not wait to get away. As he was about to leave, his mother tried to give him a Bible, but her son told her in no uncertain terms that he did believe the Bible and didn’t want her gift. Although his mother was heartbroken, she took the opportunity to slip the Bible into her son’s work bag. A few days later, he found the Bible amongst his tools. His first job was to build an internal wall in a house. As he was about to finish the task, he turned to his workmates and, showing them the Bible, said, “My mother believes this book is the living word of God, but I am going to ensure it is of no use to anyone.” Then, taking the Bible, he hid it behind the bricks of the wall and sealed it up.
A few years later, after a drinking session, the young man and his friends were walking home through the local market. He stopped at a stall selling Bibles and Christian books. He asked the stallholder if he believed the Bible was the living word of God. The Christian stallholder assured him he did. The young man laughed and told the story of how he had hidden the Bible given to him in the wall of a house. “What good,” he asked the Christian, “would that Bible do?” The man could not believe his ears and asked him which house it was. The young man described the house in the area he had worked in. The Christian said it was his house. He explained that, when he demolished a wall to extend his home, he discovered a Bible. He began reading it, and it led him to Jesus Christ. He explained he was trying to share his faith with other people through his bookstall. The young bricklayer became furious and attacked the man with his friends and ran off. The following day as the stallholder lay recovering in hospital, his attacker walked into the ward and to his bedside. He was broken-hearted and full of regret, and sought the forgiveness of the Christian. In the conversation which followed, he opened his heart to the Lord Jesus.
There are many, many Christian parents whose hearts have been broken by their children’s rejection of the Saviour. Many Christians feel deep distress over loved ones, friends and neighbours they have sought to lead to Christ. This is compounded when it involves those who, in the words of the apostle, “were running so well” yet now appear to have no interest in the Saviour they once followed. We feel our weakness, and we regret mistakes we made in the bringing up of our children or in the communicating of our faith.
But never let our broken hearts cause despair. The love we feel comes from the heart of Christ. Reproach and rejection broke His heart. But He never ceases to break down the walls people erect in resistance to the love of God. Sometimes He breaks down such barriers suddenly, as He did with Saul of Tarsus and the Philippian jailor, and at other times it takes a lifetime, and we may never see it. His love does not fail, and we should take refuge in it. But that love should also instil in us holy confidence in what the Lord can do. He can act in power and grace to save, recover and restore those who mean so much to us, and even more to Him. We can appeal in faith to Him to do what seems impossible. And we can take every opportunity to act as He would act in continuing to reach out to those we love, in expectation of their blessing.
