To Build A Bridge

 

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aris is a wonderful city with incredible sights, sounds, marvelous food, and at all times of the year, tourists!  They come in droves to see the monuments, to sit in a café, and to buy any type of souvenir they can find, from Eiffel Tower key chains to original works of art.  There is something for everyone in Pairs and once you’ve been there, you want to go back. 

 

On one trip to the French capital, I had occasion to visit the city in a very unique way.  Paris is divided by the Seine River into the left and right banks.  Across the Seine, wonderful and lovely bridges connect the two sides of the city.  These bridges are not only beautiful, but they have wonderful stories to tell. 

 

The best way to see them is to take a boat tour in the evening when everything in the city is lit.  The tour takes about an hour and as you pass under each bridge, the tour guide tells the history of each bridge and its construction.  Although I have taken this tour several times, I learned something new about a particular bridge spanning the Seine and this lesson is the subject of our devotional today.  

 

On July 14, 1789, the French stormed a large prison in the city known as the Bastille.  The storming of this building marked the beginning of the French Revolution.  Two days after this event, the National Assembly had the building burned to the ground much to the merriment of the French people.  But that was not the end of this prison.  As the walls crumbled and fell, large stones lay strewn all over the ground.  These stones were taken, and a bridge was built across the Seine joining the right and left banks.  Today, that bridge is still standing and is known as Concorde Bridge.   

 

As the boat passed under that bridge, I thought long and hard about the stones looking down at me.  They had been used to close people in, to separate them from humanity, to keep them locked away and out of mind, to remove them completely from life.  Now those stones were serving a different purpose.  They had been used to span a river, allowing free passage from one side to another.  Stones once used as prison walls keeping people in now form a bridge opening one side of Paris to the other. 

 

Sometimes in the Christian life, we experience trials, setbacks, and difficulties.  At the time, we don’t fully understand God’s purpose nor his plan.  We feel hemmed in, trapped, imprisoned and shut off from others and sometimes from God, himself.  Our situation resembles a prison with no way out and the more we cry out to God, the more silent he seems to be.   

 

It during these times that the words of Romans 8:28 are especially comforting, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  These are very encouraging words form the Apostle Paul, especially in light of his life’s circumstances.  Paul was imprisoned, beaten, shipwrecked, pursued, ridiculed, mocked, misrepresented, well, you get the picture.  Paul knew that not everything in life is good, God never promised that.  But Paul did know that every situation works for good in the life of the believer.   

 

This is why he opens this wonderful verse with “And we know…”  He does not say we think, we believe, we hope, it might be possible, etc.  No!  Paul knows!  He knows from experience with God that his Heavenly Father understands the situations of his life and that God knows at every moment where Paul is and what he needs.  Paul knew that the very stones that seem to imprison today will be used by God to build a bridge in his life.  Paul also knows it takes time to build a bridge and so he is content to wait until God gives the go ahead to move forward. 

 

I do not know where you are today in your walk with God.  But I do know that God is working for good.  According to Jeremiah 29:11, God has plans for you, plans not to harm you but to give you a future and a hope.  He is busily and steadily working, using each and every circumstance, trial, setback, disappointment, difficulty, etc. to build, not a prison, but a bridge.  It is my prayer for you today that you will look beyond the walls that surround you today and see the bridge God is constructing.  Everything, and I do mean everything, in your life has a purpose and a meaning and God will use it for your good and for his glory.  Remember, it takes time and stones to build a bridge!