Today's Scripture Reading (October 23, 2021): Exodus 36
There are a series of blueprints
for the building where my office is located just behind the books on one of my
bookcases. The blueprints are
detailed, and in the hands of someone who understands them, they are valuable. I freely
admit that that is not me. I have looked at the blueprints, but I don't understand half of what is
there, if I am honest.
But I love to watch those skilled at reading them look at the blueprints, knowing that they understand
the meaning of each line and drawing.
But the building predates me. It is almost sixty
years old. And the reality is that there are things in the building that no
longer function the way they were intended to operate. And to those who understand them, the blueprints
are a treasure trove of information, allowing the builders and carpenters of
today get into the head and the imaginations of the ones who dreamed of the building and constructed what they saw in their visions so that we can try to restore function to what no
longer works.
There is a second set of blueprints, also hidden on
that same shelf in my office. Those blueprints speak of a dream that was never
realized. The building that houses my office was only the first step in what
was intended to be a much larger building. But that second part of the building
was never constructed. Lack of funds and willing workers condemned the dream,
and only part of it was built. The rest of the building, for a variety of
reasons, will never be constructed. In fact, if the dream were to come alive again, it
would likely take a very different shape from the vision that was proposed sixty years ago. And that is likely as it should be;
each generation needs to dream its own dream.
The portion of Exodus begins a restatement of the
dream of a tabernacle given by God to Moses. It is a blueprint. For Bezalel,
Oholiab, and every skilled worker, this section means
something. They understand the dream with the intention of carrying it out. The
dream has been passed down, first from God to Moses, then from Moses to Bezalel, and finally from Bezalel to the rest of his team. And Israel's reality is that without these men, the dream would never be built. The only way that the dream becomes
a reality is if the skilled of Israel take the vision and make it theirs.
And that principle remains for us. I believe that God
has a dream for our world, a vision based on love and abhors hate. But the only way that
that dream can ever become a reality is if we are willing to take that dream
and make it ours, giving of our talents to create the world that God has
dreamed. And if we don't, then like the second set of blueprints in my
office, it will remain a dream that never makes it off the written page.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 37
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