Invisible Rubble

Daniel 2:35a -- "Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on the threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace."

image: iwannabe.com

Zooming over lush green hills and winding black top, a huge smile crossed my face as I clicked the mouse over Cainta Rizal in Taytay, Manila on Google Earth. I couldn't believe I'd found Faith Academy and zoomed in to catch as much detail as I could. There it was. My high school. More than six thousand miles away in the Philippines.

In my head I could see the tall grasses, big trees, and skinny back roads that we'd take when we missed the bus back to the dorm. I followed the trail and found the building that I thought was where my dorm siblings and I spent our nights curled up by the pool, doing homework, or zonked out in our rooms. As the image became fuzzy when I tried to zoom in too far, I doubted my memory of the dorm location and zoomed back out to get my barrings. Wow. Things were soooooo very different from when I lived there back in the 1980's.

For one thing, Faith Academy had grown quite a bit. There was now a pool and what looked like a few new buildings. But in the space where I remembered to stand the dorm next door to ours there was nothing. Not even a rubble pile. Then further on down the roads that I used to run relentlessly to burn off steam - there was a whole new subdivision and a beautifully green golf course.

I sat back in my worn out office chair and sighed deeply.

In the book of Daniel there is a verse that sums up what I was feeling to a T. "The iron, the clay" - the cement, the brick - "the bronze, the silver and the gold," - the trees, the walkway, the pool - "were broken to pieces and became like chaff on the threshing floor." 

We really aren't on this earth for very long, are we? Will there be a pile of invisible rubble left behind when God calls me home? Or will there be growth - new buildings and greenery?

Of course I hope that, like Faith Academy, there will be a lasting legacy when I'm gone...that one can look back at my life and see that there was true, lasting growth. I want the children of my great grandchildren to KNOW Jesus. Have I planted the right seeds? Do the paths forged through out my life time lead them strait to God?

I wind the little Google arrow back around the winding roads to Faith Academy, Manila and I smile big. It is STILL there serving the parents of missionaries through out the Philippines Islands. A place where every Wednesday there is chapel and Bible study is a standard part of the curriculum. It hasn't fallen to pieces and blown away.

THAT is how I want to be. A standing testament to God's amazing strength and undying grace.