Building Bridges

 So there's this town in Italy that's showing us all the way by simply creating a way. Giving the world an example at a time it needs it most. 

A couple years ago, the town's bridge collapsed. Known for being the main artery of transportation, it's been in a state of disrepair and rebuild ever since. 

This year, the bridge was finally fixed and reopened. And I'm seeing the lesson with eyes wide open: in a time when so much is being torn down, someone is willing to bridge divides. Someone is willing to build a bridge. To span the gap. 

Love builds bridges. It crosses over and it meets in the middle. It creates a way where there is no way so that The Way Himself can reach us all. 

We've watched so much crumble in this, the first year of a new decade. We all entered it feeling much hope as in all years past but now weary of watching everything fall. We scan the world's scene and see so much pain, so much disrepair. So many memories broken, so much history in ruins. Life right now feels like the collapsed bridge. Dreams, hopes, plans all severed. Divides seemingly too deep to span. 

But this town...

This town is proving to us all that we can be the ones who build, who strengthen when so much around us lies in shambles. We can be the ones who set into motion what unites, what connects, instead of adding to the disrepair. Instead of leaving the gap to stay as it is. 

As all the world suffers, and this town has suffered too, they set out in 2020 to bring back hope. To rebuild. And I'm inspired. 

Love chooses to find a way to bring together because Love Himself found a way to bring us together in Him. Love looks for a way to restore because He is all about restoring us. Love sees a vision to build when others destroy because He takes what is destroyed and turns it into something beautiful. Mending broken things is God's business, and it should be ours.  

Perhaps it's not a physical bridge but a bridge in the heart we rebuild. One kindness, one word of hope at a time, we lay the foundation for sides to be brought together in forgiveness, grace, and redemption. We make a safe place for others tread securely over the divide below. We choose the opposite way because His way never made sense by the world's way but is the only way to finding the togetherness we all seek and find in Him. 

The Italian town would've celebrated the reopening of their bridge anyway. But perhaps, in these difficult times, it means more. When so many are looking for a sliver of hope, this proves that one can choose to let Love lead the way, to let Love build in the face of hate. And, in doing so, bring us a bit closer to that holy sense of community in which God Himself delights.