In 1906, a great calamity struck the city of San Francisco. The most devastating earthquake in the city’s history brought the Paris of the West tumbling to the ground. The majority of the metropolis was essentially destroyed with thousands left destitute and homeless.
The great city had been the most prosperous center on the West Coast. A paragon of banking, shipping, and culture, people flocked to the beautiful City on the Bay to bask in the inflow of cash and material wealth that seemed to surge down her streets like honey from a comb.
It was destroyed in an instant, but that wasn’t the end. San Francisco wasn’t ready to put her former glories aside. She rose up and rebuilt herself anew, better and more glorious than ever.
As the book of Nehemiah opens, Jerusalem has been decimated, her walls broken down, and the gates burned with fire. The city is a mess. Nehemiah mourns for his homeland. In Nehemiah 2:7, he goes before King Artaxerxes and pleads:
“Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah.”
At the time, the fall of Jerusalem was a distant event. Nehemiah was in the palace of Artaxerxes in the lap of luxury. He could have ignored the cries of her remnant people in captivity.
No, not Nehemiah. He stirred the king’s heart and traveled from Babylon to rebuild the city of Jerusalem. It couldn’t have been easy. In the palace, he knew of feasting, fine fabrics, and floors of polished stone. In Jerusalem, he faced a dusty road filled with tumbled buildings, and there was no prepared place to lay his head. What was Nehemiah thinking?
God wishes us to do the same. Where has our prosperity failed us? Have our children gone astray? Is our relationship with our spouse falling apart stone by marital stone? Can we barely speak to the pastor for the dust of disgust rising in the air?
We have to stir God’s heart and then travel to our Jerusalem to rebuild her walls. In that great city now laid waste is where we’ll find our prosperity of family, heart, and relationships. In our rebuilt Jerusalem is our chance for renewed hope and happiness in those who need us in their lives.
San Francisco today is recognized as one of the most beautiful cities in the world. When we repair our foundations, we will shine with the beauty of God’s healing on the walls of our lives as they rise on the sure example of Christ.
When our relationships are rooted in the grace of God, we are wealthy beyond compare.
Copyright © 2016 MyChurchNotes.net
Originally Published 9-12-16 in Relationships