Fox on a Wall

"Tobiah the Ammonite, who was standing beside him, remarked, 'That stone wall would collapse if even a fox walked along the top of it!" Nehemiah 4:3 NLT

They lay in the pot, withered, as if all life had vanished from them.

A church member, learning of the small garden my grandson and I had planted in the backyard, told me he had some extra squash plants if I wanted them. He needed to thin his. Since none of our seeds had sprouted, I accepted his offer.

Since he was thinning, getting much dirt around the roots when he pulled them up was impossible. He placed them in a pot and covered the roots with loose soil. Hours passed before I could plant them. Though they languished in a shady spot, the uprooting was torture for the small plants.

As soon as I got home from church, I put them in the ground, but the daily hot sun wilted them. I poured more water and plant food on them. After several days, three of the four bounced back. Now I'm hoping for vegetables from what appeared a fruitless endeavor.

There was once another endeavor that appeared doomed from the start: a wall. Nehemiah served a Persian king but was concerned for his people back in the land of Israel. The walls surrounding the city of Jerusalem were destroyed. They needed rebuilding to protect the people from wild animals and from their enemies. As he and the people worked diligently, enemies from without and from within opposed. One, in particular, said the wall wouldn't hold a fox. But it would . . . And more.

God is still in the wall-building business. The walls He wants to build around my life are redemption, forgiveness, love, healthy relationships, and service. When I let Him build those walls, they will hold a fox and anything else that treads on them. Satan can't penetrate them, nor can anyone or anything else he sends.

The problem is not the walls God builds but the ones I often attempt to build. Walls of fear, rejection, anxiety, worry, failure, disappointment, unhealthy relationships, busyness. The ones common to the human race. These walls interfere with the walls God wants to build-and will if I let them. God's walls will hold a fox . . . And anything else. Mine won't. Let God build secure walls around your life. Nothing will be able to penetrate the walls He erects. Prayer: Father, build walls around us that will keep out those things that keep us from being all You desire for us to be.

Martin Wiles Hodges, South Carolina, USA