courtesy of 3poppies photography

Sunday 11 November 2012

Building palaces

Today is remembrance day. I never fail to be touched and humbled during the couple of minutes we spend in silence remembering the fallen and sacrifice they made for our freedom. The older I get, the more this means to me. I feel truly grateful for the freedom they gave their lives for.

Thinking of the horrors of war led me to think of the people i have heard of or spoken to this past year who seem to be going through the refiners fire. Some of their trials appear incomprehensible and my heart aches for them. At times I wondered was it really necessary?
I'd been pondering the purpose of this life for a while. Then I stumbled on a friends wall post on Facebook and some inspired person had quoted this from CS Lewis:

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that these jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making court yards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. 

There it was, in words I could understand and make sense of. We are being made into palaces. Sometimes it feels as though we'd be content with a cottage if only the hard times would stop, but in those times we need to hold on to the picture of a palace and know we will get there!




My website : www.mecuperate.co.uk