Invisible Friends and Spiritual Rebar

I don’t remember it, but I am told that when I was small I had an invisible friend who was my playmate until my little brother was born and I finally had someone else to play with.  Of course there were times when I wished that my brother were invisible and I’m sure he wished the same about me, but that is a whole other story.  My own son found an invisible friend when his big sister started to school and he was at home by himself during the day.  That friend disappeared when he started to school.

This is number two in a series of blogs about “life building” that I am writing in conjunction with the construction project at our home.  This week I am thinking about invisible friends and unseen support systems.

The forms are in for the concrete foundation that will be poured toward the end of this week.  Before that happens, rebar has to be in place for reinforcement.  The plumber has to install pipes, fittings, and drains.  When those tasks have been completed, all that skilled workmanship is going to be covered up with a thick layer of concrete, never to be seen again. Completely unseen. But without it?  What a mess!

The blessings of my life are too numerous to count, and I haven’t deserved a single one of them.  Sometimes I feel a little bit like a turtle on a fence post.  You know about that, right?  If you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself. 

No matter how hard we work for it, no matter how much skill, initiative, and energy we have, none of us achieves anything of true worth without some invisible friends.  I’m not talking about the “imaginary” friends of childhood.  I’m talking about people who will not be standing on the public stage of life with us when we celebrate our accomplishments, but whose prayers, moral support, encouragement, and perspective have provided the unseen support systems that have empowered our successes and mitigated our failures.

The paradox:  Anything worthwhile that you see in me can only be explained by support systems you will never see.

One example of that is found in Romans 15:13. “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

How is it possible to overflow with confident hope?  As for me, I can only explain it by my Invisible Friend.  Our lives matter so much to God that He doesn’t want our best to be the best that we can do.  He provides us with Himself, and with other support systems (seen and unseen) to be the spiritual rebar that strengthens the foundation of our lives. 

If you see my talking to my Invisible Friend, please don’t interrupt. We might be on a roll.