Balconies

Do you ever notice really random things as you travel around?  Like I’m talking about things that normal people don’t necessarily observe or comment on?  We all are so different and different things get highlighted to us. Recently I have been noticing “balconies”. You know, the second floor or higher space that projects outside from a room of a house or apartment, that is supported by steel or wood beams and enclosed with fence-like protection. The balcony is the outer part of a house. Buyers pay a premium for these protrusions. Yet what I’ve noticed is that hardly anyone uses them.  I even have looked in warm climes for anyone out on their balcony. Nada, nothing. Only once in a while I’ll see someone sitting on their balcony and I say, “Hey, good job! You are using your balcony!” They don’t hear me, but I’m affirming them.

We use our back decks and patios and even the front ones. We use our backyard BBQ space. Why don’t we use our balconies? This is a special space. We paid extra for it. It is out of doors. It is a space that can be utilized. But no, no one during my layman data collecting research is on their balcony, enjoying it. I ask why?

Now, a wise man once said that so much of life is a metaphor. I remember this often and I think, what is the metaphor that we are not utilizing our balconies?  What is the metaphor of a balcony? 

The Bible only speaks of a couple of balconies. One is in Ezekiel 42:3 where this is an outer thing, a gallery, that the priests, who are holy, are not going out on. They are inside in the rooms. The other scripture is the rooftop balcony that King David was on and saw Bathsheba and enacted a number of problem issues. (2 Sam. 11:2) I think perhaps King Nebuchadnezzar had problems with a balcony, (Daniel 4:29-32). But what is the metaphor that you and I would avoid balconies?

Perhaps it is to do with being ‘high’?  It is not good to be high on drugs. But to be high on Holy Spirit is great, (Eph. 5:18). God is the One who is on High. (Psa. 138:6). When we are christians, Jesus followers, the Bible says God seats us on high with Christ in heavenly places. (Eph. 2:6).

But I have a story about a balcony. When we had our house built we had a balcony outside of our master bedroom, as many do. It was held up by the four pillars of the covered front porch which was underneath it. The balcony was solid and shielded the front porch from rain. We enjoyed this balcony and besides having chairs on it, at various times I grew flowers and vegetables there in pots.  Well, after twenty years, on a couple of those pillars below, we saw some outside deterioration so we hired a builder to check things out and maybe redo the posts. Ha! What he found when he began to dismantle the post, was that the foundation of the balcony was rotten, especially on one side. So rotten, in fact, that if we had gone to that end of the balcony and jumped together, we would have probably crashed down to the ground! The balcony foundations were rotten on the inside of the pillars and we couldn’t see it on the outside! We had been walking on dangerous footing and didn’t even know it. 

Friend, are you and I treading on dangerous ground outside our life-house, i.e. our metaphorical balcony? Our metaphorical balcony that has rotten foundations inside that cannot be seen on the outside?  In other words, on the outside we seem very religious and involved at church, but on the inside we have no peace, joy or love for others. King David stepped out on his balcony to adultery. The holy priests stepped out on their balcony to unholiness. It is not in our best interests to “step out on our spiritual balcony” when our foundations are unstable. 

For me, the cleaning up of my personal foundations I think was when I went through deliverance and emotional healing. It was like cleaning up the junk in my life, both enemy stuff and my own human stuff. It was like restoring the foundations. Now I can, metaphorically speaking, step out on my balcony. I can know God loves me, feel it, sense it, live it, and live in the peace and joy of that! 

Pastor’s sermon today was from Hebrews 4 about entering the rest of God. Ceasing from “works” and busyness and just resting in the Presence of God and the finished work of Christ. So rarely do we just sit, except to watch TV or YouTube on our phones. We don’t sit, relax, talk with each other in conversations. Balconies are perfect places for this.

Our master bedroom balcony, which has been redone, is a southern exposure and it becomes the warmest place in the whole house when the sun is shining. I often go there to sit and warm up in the sun.  What a perfect metaphor for spiritually sitting in the Presence of the Son, Jesus, or the Heavenly Father and just soaking in His Presence and the light of His love! Sitting with Christ in heavenly places is the spiritual counterpart.

Sometimes my husband comes and joins me, and it is often the place of an important conversation and decision.

I want to use the second and third floor decks, the balconies that God has given me. I want to do this physically and symbolically. I encourage you to go out on your physical balcony, if you have one, and talk to Jesus about these things.  If you don’t have one, there’s always a beautiful one in a public place, like our downtown Library in Vancouver, WA. Step out! Step up! Rest! Converse! Exult in the glorious truth, a reality, that we are seated with Christ, on high, in heavenly places!  Maybe it is on a balcony?