Lessons from a Fence

Over the past couple of months as I have driven down a road we frequently take, I have watched a guy build a large, tall wooden rail fence around his property. Any time I drive that way, I look over to check his progress. Obviously doing it himself when he has some time, its going slowly. But, because of this, I’ve gotten to witness every stage of fence building.

Here are a few truths I’ve realized about fences that can be applied to our Christian lives.

1—The horizontal fence rails are only as strong as the vertical posts to which they are attached.

2— The deeper the posts, the farther the fence can stretch.

3—When people admire an attractive fence, they are complimenting the rails, but without the posts, there would be nothing to admire.

4—The rails connected securely to the posts keep bad things out and good things in.

May your roots [posts] go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children [rails] should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love [fence] really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it … —Ephesians 3:17-19 TLB, bracketed words added.