Redemptive Space

In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit. Isaiah 27:6

Several weeks ago, while traveling with Devin's parents a group from the Cincinnati area, we had the privileged of meeting a friend, Tina, in the Haifa area. Tina and her husband, Moshe, had formerly lived in a community called Nisanit which was in the northern area of the Gaza Strip. Together they built a home and grew a garden, but the Disengagement Plan forced them to leave in 2003.

They bought a shipping crate and were only able to move was able to fit inside. Much of its content included plants they had uprooted from their garden, which they believed held a great deal of prophetic significance for the last days restoration of Israel.

The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. Isaiah 51:3

After finding a place to settle temporarily, Tina and Moshe adapted the shipping crate into a studio and gallery space to display Tina's photography, and a moving slide show of the assembly, growth and disassembly of their garden in Nisanit. They sealed the original doors, and cut openings for a glass door and windows. They left the original wood floors, but covered the interior walls with gevis (dry wall).

















We viewed the slide show while in the crate, and Tina shared her heart for forgiveness, not being resentful about the forced move, and God's heart for restoring lost inheritances. Israeli's who were forced to leave during the Disengagement were left paying two mortgages, one on their old homes in Gaza and another for their new homes where ever they were choosing to settle. Shortly after they moved to the North, Tina received a financial inheritance from a father she had not seen since she was 9 months old!

Having worked in Landscape Architecture up until Aviel's birth, and having a love for regional and indigenous spatial constructs, this little shipping crate paved way for the Lord to minister to my heart in a powerful way. I'm still sorting it out, but once I understand, maybe I'll write a little more!

And so a desert becomes a garden, then a desert again... and a space of mourning and moving becomes a space for creation.

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. Isaiah 35:1-2

For more about Tina and Moshe's story go here. And I encourage you to watch the slide show of their garden.

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