Maya Lin wanted to build a wall. Her wall was not practical but a monument. She created it as part of a college architecture class that challenged students to make an entry for the national design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Her professor only gave her a B-. The politicians didn’t care much for it. They claimed it was too simple and an affront to the soldiers. Yet it stands today as one of the most powerful memorials. It’s not just the wall, it’s what is on it. Names. 58,000 half-inch-high names of the dead in chronological order. Lin wanted people to know the names of those that never came back.
Nehemiah wanted to build a wall. It wasn’t a monument but a practical necessity. Not only to protect his hometown but to unify the people in it. The politicians didn’t care much for his efforts. They undermined and intimidated the effort. But Nehemiah didn’t stop till the work was done even after the wall was built. The book of the Bible that bears his name stands a memoir to the effort.
And in it is also a list of names.
In chapter three, Nehemiah gives us a list of the workers and just what they did. In chapter 10 he tells us all the men that signed the covenant. In chapter 11 he tells of the families that volunteered to live in the city. Throughout the book, you see the names of those that gave of themselves to ensure the future of Jerusalem. Nehemiah wanted us to know the names of those that were willing to work.
Too many great efforts are credited to the few at the top and not to the lowly that bared the burden. Let’s never forget in the work we do to remember those who put the hand to the plow and sacrifice themselves to do so.
But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.
1st Thessalonians 5:12
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