Chain Link Fences

A couple of days ago I was riding in the car and passed a big back yard with a chain link fence and a little boy playing in the back yard. It reminded me of my childhood. The days when everyone had chain link fences. You only had a wooden fence if you had a swimming pool in your backyard and there certainly weren't many of those. I know I'm dating myself... Oh well.

It really got me to thinking how sad our lives have become all surrounded by our wooden fences. When I was growing up you used to talk to your neighbor through the chain link fence, just visit with them for a while and sometimes even the neighbor a few doors down. You could practically see all the way to the end of street through the backyard! I miss those days!

Now pretty much everyone has wooden fences or privacy fences as they are sometimes called. I admit, I feel safer with my wooden fence, they aren't nearly as easy to climb as those chain link fences are. And admittedly, things aren't quite as safe as they were when I was a child. But I think not only are we keeping unwanted things out of yard, we are closing ourselves in from the outside world. We don't talk as much to our neighbors as we used to, you hardly ever see them. We pull up into our driveways, go in and close the garage door, we keep our front doors closed, we sometimes even drive by and pick up our mail before we pull into the drive way. It's like we have become so private that we don't even share simple hellos and common courtesy's anymore.

And how about just dropping in to visit a friend... we don't dare do that these days. When I was growing up it used to be so much fun when someone just dropped by to visit. Now we are so worried about how the house looks and if everything is put away, that we are literally scared to death that someone WILL stop by unannounced.

We are so closed up in our own little worlds, that unless it's scheduled for someone to come over, we don't just visit much. I miss the days of chain link fences and friends just dropping by to say hello. So what if the house isn't perfectly cleaned. Real friends don't care. How are we suppose to shine the light of Jesus to the world, if we are closed up in our own little worlds. I fear we have become so private that no one gets to see the real us and we are missing out on so much that life and friends have to offer. As well as possible opportunities that God is trying to lay before us.......I say, bring on the chain link fences!!