Page 11 - Laying Down the Law

to prepare for his great work.
Generations pass. The vision of the city is passed to the man’s son, and then to
that man’s son. With a single focus they continue to lay up wealth, to develop
technology, and to store up material for the construction of the city.
At the same time, the people charged with guarding the wall continue their task.
As one generation passes into another, the people guarding the wall forget the
purpose envisioned for the land. All that matters to them is that they have a duty, and
a charge to keep. They are to protect the land, and keep out all intruders. They are to
prevent the land from being altered in any way.
These people are proud of their calling. They begin to think of the land and the
wall as their own. It was given to them as their own sacred charge. Though all is
barren within, they believe that no place on earth is more valuable. The immense wall
around the property gives evidence to its value. Indeed, the wall becomes immensely
valuable to them as they focus more on it and the purpose it serves, than the land
within which it guards.
More generations pass, and the time is at hand for the visionary’s descendant to
build the city. All is in readiness. An immense procession of workers accompany the
owner of the land to the property. They arrive at the wall with equipment, engineers,
blueprints, and every necessary thing to build this paradise in the wilderness. It is an
hour of momentous importance. The hour to transform the barren wilderness into a
paradise is at hand. The work envisioned generations before, which has been the
desire and passion of the land owner and his descendants is to be brought to glorious
fruition.
At the wall the land owner and his laborers are confronted by the people who
were given charge to guard the land. These guardians have forgotten the reason the
land was purchased. They have been so focused on the wall, and their part in
maintaining it, that they have lost completely the larger vision. They do not
understand that the wall was constructed for a season, and a specific role. To them
the wall has become all important. Their role as guardians is all that they perceive.
Being a prideful people, the guardians of the wall are unwilling to relinquish the
work that gave them distinctiveness and purpose. Though they are invited to enter
into this far surpassing enterprise, and are assured of key roles in the construction of
the city and homes when it is complete, they are unmoved. They refuse to cooperate
with the land owner.
How blind are these people! They do not see that all inside their walls is barren
wilderness. They could be possessors of paradise. Familiarity and the pride of their
unique role holds a greater attraction than seeing the glorious vision of the landowner
fulfilled.
The wall has stood for centuries. It has become an idol to the people who guard
it, a thing to be worshiped. In the owner’s eyes, it is merely ancient stone and mortar.
It has served its purpose. It fulfilled the intent for which it was constructed by his
forebears. Though the wall is impressive, it is a mere shadow of that which is to
replace it. The hour has arrived for the wall to give way to far better things. The wall