Looking out the window, I knew the air was still because the morning rain made long, straight lines stringing to the ground in the yard. As they freshly fell, I thought of them as thousands of translucent plumb lines falling from above before me into the sea of springtime green. Plumb lines mean something to me.
Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground. Ephesians 6:13
I was in my twenties the first time I tied a key to the end of a piece of string and held it to the wall to mark the straight line down. All it meant to me then was that I would likely get that roll of wallpaper on straight. I suppose gravity assures that line can’t lie. Out in the yard, a burst of wind can blow those rain lines sideways and perfection is blurred, but the sight of them has stayed with me and they expound.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. Ephesians 4:14
A week later, a morning storm with thunder and lightning blew through as I sat reading again in the little shed out back. I got up to look out the window, to open the door and watch it blow, dry inside Hinterhaus. The plumb lines did not appear for the wind blew the rain sideways, and in swishy circles, but I stood thinking of the lines still. A harsh wind often blurred the clean lines in a life like mine… yes, it surely had for me. And when a red hot easterly came charging through with clouds of sand and dust and chaos in its hot breath, I would lose my bearing, lose my clear mind, lose myself and my direction in Christ. I couldn’t hold the line when it was blown out of control. I’d give up feeling a failure and a fraud. Sometimes it blew in on my own thoughts and in words, sometimes by way of angry people, hurt people aiming to hurt, by scared people peddling their fear, by people losing control and wanting control, by forces meaning to move me in their directions, but the source is ever the same. It was the plumb line that saved me once and for all. Truth can save us all.
…take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Ephesians 6:16
On a Sunday morning, some years ago, a little group huddled together for prayer. I had been battered by the hot winds for some time. Under siege was my confidence to curate the absolutes of God (those plumb lines of Truth) and stand with them for myself when all hell seemed to be coming for me saying that I could not hear God’s voice, that I could not know His absolutes for myself. A woman sitting near shared this:
“He watches you, Rhonda. The Lord watches you as you daily take up your pen and write your words out to Him.” (How did she know?) “I see Him with His own pen, He is standing on the other side of your paper, tracing the curves and the lines of each word you write out to Him. He sees you. He loves you. He is with you.”
And as those straight rain lines softly fall, I think how fragile they seem, so easily blown around. I know there will be wind again for me–so I take up my own pen. He has shown me what to do—to trace His plumb lines of truth, pressed into permanence with my own postured pen. I will trace their righteous lines, straight and sure, all the days of my life with my own pen, with my own heart, with the power of my own life, with my own choice and in my own growing faith. And when the blowing winds come, they will remain inscribed for me to see. Plumb lines mean something to me.
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Joshua 1:8
Hinterhaus Journal 
Made me cry,so much wisdom and truth. Thank you for sharing.
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