There is a type of wall that is built in your heart, an invisible wall, where each brick is made with hate, gossip, criticism, bullying, envy, selfishness; because of the attitude of others and their behaviour this wall gets bigger and bigger. It is a wall that you are not able to touch or climb; most of the time you hide behind this wall, and only with the help of God can you tear down this wall. “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” Matthew 12:25
Because of others creating false testimonies and gossiping, these walls stay there for years, creating pain and suffering. With the years this wall gets stains, scratches and fungus—they get damaged. Even though someone is doing something wrong, do we have the right to trespass and ruin their lives? Or are we strong enough to stop the construction of this wall and help this brother or sister with our prayers? Don’t you think enough is enough? We should break this wall; we are the followers of Jesus and there should be nothing between us.
People have built walls for their own protection; they don’t want anyone to hurt their feelings. A Christian book called The Power of the Wife that Prays by Stormie Omartian, says the following, “In order to break these walls in our hearts and destroy the barriers that stop communication we must be completely honest to ourselves and to God about our feelings. He knows the truth and He wants to see if we are ready to ask for His help; then He will be ready to start working in our hearts. Jesus was the only one who broke down the wall between the Jews and gentiles.”
One day when I was a little girl I was on the patio of my parent’s home. I remember that day I had been punished for something that I did wrong, and the worst thing that my mother could do to me in those days was to send me to the patio. I didn’t wanted to go, but I obeyed my mother. We had moved recently to that piece of land and my parents started building a very small home. The patio didn’t have walls, and when the neighbours passed by I really felt that they were looking at me; I felt that they were pointing and saying, “you did something wrong, that’s why you are there.” Oh how I wished to have walls, since I didn’t want the people to look at me. I remember looking at the sky and thinking that I didn’t belong to this world. For a moment I thought that my parents were not humans and that my real parents lived in the sky, and that for some reason they came to this world and dropped me there to perform a special mission. That day I was asking “why have you left me here where people don’t understand me? Why do children pull my hair and make fun of me, why?” I really wanted to have walls; I wanted to feel protected from the people that were passing by. Not long after my father started building the walls I remember that the bottom of the walls had a good foundation of solid rocks and the rests of the walls were made of bricks. I was very happy when the walls were finished.
On Thursday September 19, 1985, an earthquake struck the central, south and west areas of Mexico City; it had been the strongest and deadliest earthquake in the history of the country. The evening of Friday, September 20 an aftershock impacted even more in the capital city of the country. The earthquake occurred at 7:19 a.m. with a magnitude of 8.1 on the Richter scale, and the approximate length was just over two minutes.
Hospital, schools and condominiums in the central area of Mexico City were the most affected. I remember that day we felt the earthquake, but we never imagined the magnitude of the destruction that had occurred. While in one part of Mexico City people were suffering from this tragedy, in other parts of the city we were not able to see what was going on. The earthquake left us without electricity and water for some days, and when we were able to see the news on the television it was hard to believe it. In two minutes some buildings were gone, the walls couldn’t sustain them; the walls broke and fell, killing doctors, nurses, workers, mothers and fathers, children, and babies. These kinds of disasters don’t recognize age, gender or education when it happens; it kills thousands, leaving complete disaster and desolation in many families.
Because of that earthquake some buildings had to be demolished; since we had two earthquakes in a very short time, people were afraid. In the schools they were telling us how to evacuate in case another earthquake occurred. I remember my father told us that if it happens again, wherever you are, don’t run, just go to the corners of the walls and stay there, that is the strongest part of the walls.
People from other countries started helping; Mexicans united in the rescue effort. People from different social ranks and especially the poor people gathered together to help other Mexicans. There was a group of people nicknamed topos which means “the groundhogs,” and a man named Marcos who volunteered would go into very small areas, risking their lives and rescuing people, using only their hands in the hope that they would find someone alive. Marcos rescued 27 people and to the surprise of the groundhogs and volunteers, after some days they found a live newborn baby. They called him the miracle baby. When they rescued him they said he was born again. A documentary said that after they rescued the first baby, everybody remained silent and they turned all the machines off to hear the baby’s cry. I can imagine all the excitement when they heard the baby cry. When this baby was rescued the volunteers became more inspired and they continued searching. In total they were able to rescue 22 babies. Thousands of people died when the walls fell in the earthquake of 1985.
The government reported the deaths of between 6,000 and 7,000 people. However, years later with the opening of information from various government sources, the record was calculated at approximately 10,000 dead. The amount of people rescued alive were approximately 4,000. There were cases of people rescued ten days later.
Brothers and Sisters, don’t you think it is time to break down these invisible walls and to remain silent to hear the cry of those who need us? We all have a mission and our mission is to defeat, break and tear this wall of division, throw away all the remnants of the wall with prayers and go and rescue souls. We need to use our hands and put all the strength in our heart to see the necessity of the world. God will do the rest. There are people crying in the world for help, but we need to be silent in order to hear them. My Dad told us that if another earthquake comes, go to the corners of the building and stay there. My Heavenly Father says in the book of Revelation 3: 12 “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.” Amen.
Lucy Flores