The Ascent [Los Pinos]

Now I do not want to sound like someone who makes things over symbolic, but there is something to be said, something almost prophetic about this climb up the mountain of Los Pinos to the abandoned school. Even beyond the sights of garbage everywhere, looking left and seeing a grown man getting high on paint thinner only then to look right and see a kid drinking out of a puddle, was a feeling in the atmosphere of hopelessness. Over the course of the month this eerie and disheartening feeling slowly began to shift. As more and more of the community began to come up the hill to the school and spectate our interactions with the kids, you could feel just a sliver of hope seeping from the floors of heaven into the hearts of the people of this community. Through the joy of the kids, some recapturing the childhood they missed and some just expressing the love God so graciously gives us at  that age, the adults began to believe their community was not lost or forgotten by God. They began to unite with us in our effort to clean up the school and a desire for the betterment of themselves and the community was sparked.

I believe this is only the beginning and there is so much God wants to do with this community.

If you will please, allow yourself to travel back in time with me for a moment to get a better visual of what I believe God wants to do with this community.

 

Imagine for a moment you are in ancient Israel. After several long and grueling days of travel by donkey back you have made it to Jerusalem. You tie up your donkey and begin walking up the steps of the hill top city. After a few steps you begin to hear an ever so soft murmur of what seems like a familiar tune. You take a quick glance around and see many people much like you, walking with their head down paying careful attention to their steps as they traverse the steep stairs. You continue your ascent and after a short amount of time has passed you notice that murmur is becoming stronger and more intense by the step. After only a few more minutes of climbing the notes which now litter the air reveal themselves.. You stop, wipe the sweat off of your brow, and pick your head up. You glance to your right, as you begin to hum along, and see hundreds of your brothers and sisters singing the all so familiar psalms of ascent (121-135). You look to your left and it’s a similar scene. The stairs have now grown narrower and as the crowd closes in you continue to chug along. There is a new vigor in your step because the destination is close and you are now unified with other people on this journey. In an instant everyone comes to a stop. You raise your head and lift your eyes… and as the temple reflects the majesty of the suns (sons) light the only words you can mutter are captured in this simple song…

“Unto you I lift up my eyes,
O you who dwell in the heavens,

Behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hands of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until he has mercy on us.

For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
Our soul is exceedingly filled

With the scorn of those who are at ease,

With the contempt of the proud.”

 

                You may be thinking to yourself, is this guy really comparing this slum neighborhood to Jerusalem? 

                Maybe I am a little crazy or disillusioned. I mean thousands of people completely overlook this neighborhood every day. I am sure hundreds of municipal developers with far higher education than me have prospected this area and decided it to be unredeemable. Perhaps my emotional connections to some of the kids in this community have led me to place illogical and irrational expectations on its future.

 

I am sure that is what the world would want me to think, but I know different. I believe, through the change we witnessed over the course of our month in Los Pinos, God is looking to redeem and exalt this community. He wants to exalt the low tree and make the dry tree flourish. This community was given just a glimmer of hope over the course of this month and like Popeye given a leaf of spinach it flexed its muscle. Now just imagine what it could do with a whole can! How much glory would that bring God? A community in the gutter of society, thought unredeemable, becomes a city on a hill where people unite together and lift their eyes to the King of Kings. 

 

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.”