RUINS derelict and abandon. Came upon them by surprise, silent and unsort.
This wasn’t really where I pictured us. After all this holy ground is ruined city, desolate and unkept.
Its been looted and vandalised to an extent that if you didn’t know what stood here before it would be unrecognisable .
This landscape is pretty badly beaten up, I wont lie.
Ruins are full of ragged edges. Shards of glass stick out here and there at odd angles .Fallen beams and broken staircases are a trip hazard and we tread carefully trying to weave a path through the wreckage and come out the other end without more damage then before.
By faith, eyes are able to see through the distortion…perceiving like visionaries the beauty that could stand .
Before the earth shook down this city, before the vandals attacked her walls and war broke out.
She was once beautiful.
Full of promise.
Built for delight and home and heart and family.
She nursed dreams within her walls. Laughter rung out and adventures were seeded deep in her gardens waiting for the time to sprout, grow, leaf and fruit.. but it never came.
Winter fell heavy.
Those dreams froze deep in the earth .Spring never arrived .
Now back here we stand beholding ruins and wondering where to start.
It seems that even the harshest winters never really last .Spring always comes and those deep seeded dreams aren’t dead at all to our suprise but amongst the chaos and cracked open earth have felt the sun and sprouted up in search of light.
Within this shattered landscape life breathes again.
Hope like seedlings springs up in the most unlikely places and although the environment is ragged still, we find it punctuated with the vibrancy of possibilities regrowth.
Wisdom, grace and insight is desperately sort to know where to begin .
This is a restoration project of epic proportion and building on broken-down foundations is a fools game .
We aim to build it slow and right.
Taking time to ensure steadfast footings.
To clear the clutter and remove the rubble.
To see the space to draft new blueprints and begin again with guidance of an architects eye and hand.
To build sturdy castles here in this landscape is the dream. With stronger boundary lines that keep the vandals out and higher towers to gaze further into the future then we could see before.
To dream impossible dreams and plant them like seeds deep in fertile grounds.
To tend these gardens well and have them bare holy fruit for generations on.
Healthy strong cities birth legacy and hold high the hearts that follow in the labourers wake.
What once was impossible now seems tangible. We dare to forge the path that is seldom walked .
Its said nothing worth doing is ever easy, what is easy never lasts.
This restoration is far from effortless but we are standing tall believing the sweat and tears are blessed.
Healing after all is seldom pretty. But much like reconstruction fortification is a necessary element.
Foundations now built on hope and heart trusting the rest will follow.
Such is life that when we find our feet and learn the landscape, the earth turns suddenly and all that was is at once undone .
Faith allows sight to see these ruins for what that are and yet overlay them with what will be .
Holding fast to what was is staying stuck in ruins desolate.
Instead we choose to take a leap and start a journey deep into new beginnings.
Forgiveness ends wars , takes power back from vandals hands .
It offers clean slate. Its the gift that rewrites a new tomorrow. Birthing future in her wake .
All that’s required is the courage to chase down the truth, Catching hold of light and choose to see beyond the present mess and further into tomorrow.
Night shift 