Bridges

Thursday, April 3, 2025

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Bridges

Our fathers made a calf in Horeb and adored a molten image; they exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating bullock. They forgot the God who had saved them, and God spoke of exterminating them.

The wall said to its builders, “Be careful not to leave any holes or cracks, because I don’t want to tumble down.”

The bridge said to the wall, “What are you protecting with your battlements and thick bricks?”

“None of your business,” said the wall. “If I tell you my secrets you might sneak up one night and scale me, and then I would think how useless I am.”

The bridge looked at the wall and then suddenly he winked. “I think you’re suspicious when you don’t need to be. I help rather than hurt. How can I help you?”

“I don’t need your help. I am tall and thick and wide, I am strong on my own. I protect my builders, and they protect me.”

“But what are you protecting them from? Why do they need protection? What are they afraid of?”

The wall looked at the bridge again and rolled his eyes. “We are not afraid. A good defense makes for a good offense. Inside me, my builders can choose their own time to attack our enemies.”

The bridge said then, “You see enemies, where I see friends. I think that we cannot find agreement in this discussion.”

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

Each of Europe’s Euro banknotes has a picture of a window or doorway on its front. There was hope that the divisions that marked Europe for so long might diminish, even disappear, in an atmosphere of open trade, open travel, and open doors. Perhaps that hope is fading. That economic and social walls are replacing bridges in some countries’ foreign policy points toward fear, that somehow how the outside will come inside and wreak some undefined havoc with trade, with relationships, with religious tolerance, with … something.

In his book For the Love of Europe, published in 2020, Rick Steves reminds us that “Europe has built its share of walls, symbols not of strength but of mistrust and insecurity.” After describing the most famous recently built wall, the Berlin Wall, he writes, “The true success of a society lies in finding a way beyond walls. If you look at European currency, you notice that bills feature bridges, not walls. And so do the dreams of great leaders.”

Since 2020 many countries of the world have moved toward self-protection rather than extending the hand of fellowship. Rick’s partner Cameron Hewitt wrote again on this subject at the beginning of 2025.

Having had the good fortune to travel and experience so much of our planet firsthand, I see our world as a vast, intricate, interwoven network of distinct societies, each one a proud product of its own complicated story. We face many of the same problems, but we approach them differently — and learning from one another is not only in our best interests, but critical to our collective success.

As Rick Steves has often said, the great challenges of our time will be not local or national, but global — in fact, they already are, from global pandemics to a worldwide rolling crisis of unprecedented extreme weather caused by climate change. The solutions must be global, as well. And that means building bridges, not walls.

Observing my ongoing relationship with God I notice myself walling up against him, then tearing down the wall, then walking serenely across the bridge that God always graciously provides. My experience of Christian evangelism, reaching out beyond myself to others,  is all about building bridges.

Come unto me, all of you with your heavy loads, and I will give you rest.

In his article, Cameron gifts us with many photographs of the world beyond walls, just across one bridge or another. And he writes thoughtfully about reaching out, which is personal but much more as well; reaching out is visibly social and political:

While societies outgrow their walls constantly — and while the dismantling of a wall is, without exception, a marker of progress and a cause for celebration — I can’t think of a single place that has ever outgrown a bridge. Consider this: What bridge has ever been taken down, and not replaced, because it’s a bother? Even when destroyed, by war or by natural disaster, bridges are among the first feature to be rebuilt, so essential are bridges to the proper functioning of a society.

And, I would add, they are necessary to the proper functioning of a person. Follow Jesus, watch him build bridge after bridge, never turning back, and how can you help but do the same?

(Exodus 32, Psalm 106, John 3, John 5)

(posted at www.davesandel.net)

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