Watch and Learn

I had a picture early last week and didn’t share as it felt so brief and there was so much else going on – but as the week has progressed it hasn’t left me but has grown stronger, so I’m sharing it now:

In it there was a master builder creating something in wide open fields. It was in its early stages but he was taking his time over it, placing each part carefully and precisely. I assumed it was a wall but couldn’t actually see what he was making as it was made from and covered with with light – it was like nothing I had ever seen before & I could not comprehend it.
Next to the builder was a young child – a toddler, playing with plastic toy tools. They were enjoying being with the master builder and enthusiastically approached to join in with what the master-builder was doing. He welcomed them warmly but gently stopped them from interfering and asked them instead to just sit with Him and watch – their “help” would have got in the way of what He was doing, and their toy tools were utterly inappropriate for what He was doing. The sense was that if they would watch the new thing and the new way that he was creating, they would gain the maturity and experience to eventually join in, at which point He would equip them with the required tools (new ones that they had never used before).

The picture was given as I was praying for the Church and the new year, and I felt it was a clear picture of where we are at: the wide open fields where there were no man-made structures in sight were a representation of the dismantling and fresh start God has brought us to. We know that God – the master builder – is doing a new, glorious thing, and we are enthusiastically trying to join in and build the new with Him, but although He always welcomes our presence and wants to include us in what He’s doing, we are both utterly unequipped and too immature/ inexperienced in the New to join in the building yet. The plastic toy tools spoke to me of our attempts to build using what is man-made and utterly insufficient. And yet as we just sit with Him and watch what He is doing, He will reveal His new plan and methods, and equip us with His new tools & show us how to use them skilfully.

It felt like a loving but firm command of “Hands off My building!”, at the same time as being an invitation to sit in close relationship and learn by watching. And I would suggest that going into 2021, that needs to be our focus: to actively watch and learn. I think most of us who know the Spirit’s voice can witness to the sense of expectation and excitement about what God is planning – even while still in the midst of a dark and difficult season such as ongoing lockdown – but we mustn’t get carried away in our attempts to ‘help’! The season to co-labour with God in building the new is coming, but let’s wait for God to hand us the tools & train us to use them well!

In fact, I was chatting with a good friend yesterday and as we discussed the problem of using the word “building”, she suggested the word “creating” instead – God is creating something new. Even though Jesus speaks of building (“I will build My Church” – Matt 16:18) so there’s nothing wrong with the word in itself, it has become somehow tainted by our human ability to build (sometimes we’re too good at it if you think of Babel in Genesis 11). Whereas when we consider God creating, it’s easier to appreciate He’s talking of something that we are unable to do, and take our hands off to watch and learn.

Lord, may we take the time to sit with you as you reveal what You are creating, knowing that You are training us for something glorious! Amen!