Published by A while ago, four year olds, Twyla and Juan-Jose sat in one of the corners of the children’s church room of the small inter-cultural church I attend. They had decided to play with the building blocks while the older children began the craft project I was explaining.
The love to build certainly begins at an early age. This past week I read an internet article on The Burj Debal, a 1,680 foot skyscraper to be completed late next year, in Dubal, a prominent city in the United Arab Emirates.
Throughout history man has demonstrated a fervent desire to build tall buildings.
Twyla and Juan-Jose were re-enacting the lesson of the morning on The Tower of Babel. They were determined to build that tower right up to the ceiling of the room!
According to Genesis (chapter eleven verse four), the builders and architects of that ancient Tower of Babel wanted prestige and fame. They felt building a tower taller than any structure that had ever been built would give them notoriety with everyone who saw it.
“Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to heaven, so that we may make a name for ourselves.”
It seems like all towers, skyscrapers, or superstructures begin the same way – with prestige, pride, and arrogance as a foundation. The Bruj Dubal is no different. The article of July 21, 2007, stated, “…the building reflects the city”s hunger for global prestige.” This attitude isn’t only Arab or ancient Babylonian for that matter. It is shared worldwide.
Americans boast of the Empire State Building and the Sears Tower. China is proud of the Jin Mao Building. Malaysia takes pride in their Petronas Tower.
The British love their Tower of London as much as the French do their Eiffel Tower.
And for centuries the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been the toast of Italy. There are other towers in the world which also were born out of the desire for recognition and esteem.
Some how, we tend to forget about the Master Builder – our Creator. The people working on the Tower of Babel certainly forgot:
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men
were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking one language
they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible
for them. Come let’s go down and confuse their language so they will not
understand each other.” Genesis 11:5-7 NIV
Our modern buildings scrape the clouds. However, the Almighty can bring them down. His word is final. No structure is so well built or solid that it can not be destroyed. Pride sank the Titanic, and pride can bring down the grandest of structures. Some day not one of these marvels of steel, glass and concrete will be left standing.
Back in the classroom, Twyla and Juan-Jose were trying to tell three-year-old Charity Ling of the Korean congregation how to put the blocks on the tower they had built to chest height. As Charity understood very little English communication was difficult. I watched to see if this problem would be peacefully resolved. So far patience was winning out.
The memory verse was being repeated over and over by ten-year-old Brittany:
“Proverbs sixteen verse eighteen, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” She paused as she finished gluing the last piece to her craft. “What”s “haughty” Miss Hoover?”
“Conceit, Brittany,” I answered.
She smiled nodding her head to indicate she understood.
Crash! I turned to see the building blocks lying scattered across the floor.
Twyla was expressing her disapproval, “Charity! See what you did! You made it fall down!”
“Las vinos negras para terminarto Charity!” Juan-Jose scolded in his native Spanish gesturing at the blocks on the floor. (I later learned he had told her, they had a hard time finishing the tower).
Charity burst into tears. The commotion brought her mother from the room next to ours. She picked Charity up, explaining in Korean what had happened; and telling Charity to help Twyla and Juan-Jose pick the blocks up and put them back on the cabinet’s shelves.
The tower of Babel re-enacted by preschoolers. A graphic lesson of how quickly a building can tumble down just like building blocks.
Interesting analogy.
(How does an intercultural church work?)