A Divided Room

I remember the day my girls divided their bedroom. The two had shared a room for years, but one day I suppose one (or both) of them had had enough of something or the other. Tape went down on the floor in as close to the middle as they could agree upon. One bed on each side, one dresser on each side, and each of their belongings on the appropriate side. They did agree, I guess, that the door was a neutral aspect since the door was on one side of the room. After all, a pre-teen girl can’t have a monopoly on a divided room door. So they both got to use the door. But other than that, the lines had been drawn.

I think it’s part of our nature to draw lines. Maybe we don’t make our lines on the carpet of our bedrooms with duct tape anymore, but I think we still draw them. Right and wrong, good and bad, clean and dirty (which in my house is still a matter of opinion), and even holy and secular. Maybe especially the holy and secular part. Now of course some lines have to be drawn. There are lines drawn in our legal and judiscial systems that we have to abide by. There are lines between sin and living a righteous life. We are called to be holy people. “Be holy because I am holy” is our command from God (1 Peter 1:16).

It’s just sometimes I think we draw lines in the sand that were never meant to be drawn. The root of being able to follow that verse in 1 Peter that I mentioned above is living in love. That’s really the root of our entire Christian life: to love God, to love others, and to forgive.  It’s hard to live that kind of life and have our lines drawn all the time.

When we draw lines we have an us vs. them mentality. We are saying that what is on one side of the line is ours, and what is on the other side of the line are things that we don’t want on our side. So what are we to do?

I think it’s time to erase some of the lines that we have drawn. If we are loving God completely and loving on others as we are told to do by the same God who died for us and them, then the separations and divisions are really just separating and dividing us.

Does this mean that anything goes and everything is permissible? Of course not. But it does, at least partially, recognize that “everything comes from God and exists by his power and is intended for his glory” (Romans 11:36).

Maybe that’s why in the first book of the New Testament that recounts the death of Jesus we are also told about something that had been used to divide. It was a curtain. This curtain was located in the temple in Jerusalem, and was used to separate the holy of holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. This place was filled with the presence (spirit) of God so mere mortals couldn’t just casually go in there. There was a curtain that physically divided. But when Jesus took on himself all the sins of the world (which was your sins and my sins), here is what happened: “at that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom”. The line that divided us from God had removed by God himself.

I have seen the presence of God in an ornate stain glass sanctuary. I have seen the presence of God in a vibrantly painted sunset. I have seen the presence of God in the tear streaked face of a widow. I have seen the presence of God in a newborn crying baby. I have seen the presence of God at a bar. I have seen the presence of God at a soccer game.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.” (Psalm 24:1). Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate some of our lines. Maybe we need to pull that duct tape off the carpet. Maybe if we look with eyes of love, we won’t even see anymore some of the lines that have been dividing us.