18Apr The walls of my home
The walls of my home have been white for years, but last year friend talked me into colorizing one of them for a change of pace. After much resistance, and when I was guaranteed all could bb painted white again, I finally settled on terra-cotta, a favorite color. The difference a new wash of color made in my room, and on my outlook, startled me. From the moment the first stroke was applied, accenting the taupe-colored rock of the hearth, I recognized that walls are sacred backdrops to our homes. Better put, walls are backdrops to our sacred lives. It is appropriate and inevitable that changes in our lives be projected on them and documented in a variety of new ways and new looks.
Each time I’ve moved from a home, I’ve prayed for a graced presence to remain there. I believe such a presence lives on somehow in the walls, like honeycomb for the next occupants. As I move on, I’m certain I’ll come up against a number of walls. Perhaps I’ll hit a few of them going full speed and be knocked out cold. But I’m reminded that Jesus walked through more than a few. When Jesus’ disciples met in fear behind locked doors after his resurrection, he transcended the problem of the locked doors and simply appeared in their midst. The same thing happened again eight days later. “And there are also many other things that Jesus did,” says the text of John’s Gospel.5
When walls seem like obstacles to what I want, I need to stop and ask what Jesus would do. His understanding of matters is complete and profound, but just before he ascended to heaven, he declared that even in our imperfect understanding we are to be witnesses of him. Surely the walls of our homes serve not only to protect and enclose us but to allow us to transcend the visible and material world as witnesses of God’s grace and power. Every time I step to stretch out the curtains of my dwelling and lengthen my cords, sparing not, God is with me—and the walls are listening.
