I rarely read the news, oft times just scanning the headlines. But once in a while, a heading would catch my attention and I’d read. This had been one of those mornings. “Trump threatens to block opening of US-Canada bridge.” I decided to read a bit. The Gordie-Howe International Bridge that would connect Detroit, MI to Windsor, ON was said to have cost $6.4 billion Canadian dollars. It was said to be in the best interest for both Canadian and US economies. 

Now the president had blocked it due to another of his desires for power. In his words, “The Canadian Government expects me, as President of the United States, to PERMIT them to just take advantage of America!” And then again, “I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them.”

Really now. I thought about bridges. I have a dear Friend who lives in my heart who builds bridges. He builds bridges not only between friends and families, but between those who are at odds with each other. In fact, he delights in building bridges. He not only delights in it, but He commands us to do the same, although He uses different wording. 

Yet I wonder how many times we give conditions to those bridges Jesus wants us to build and use. We want to be “compensated for everything” before we let that bridge span the gap. The apology is no longer enough, the debt is too high, the hurt to our self and our pride too deep. We want proof of change. We want to leave the chasm uncrossable for the time being, if not for the rest of our lives. We know the bridge would benefit both of us, yet we still demand justice, if only in our hearts. We, in some ways, think we’re bigger than the bridge. The very idea that someone would expect us to permit a bridge between us and them is unthinkable to the human mind.

But just as much as this bridge spanning the distance between Detroit and Windsor cost $6.4 billion dollars to build and now sits unused, the cost Jesus paid to have all our bridges built over the span of time we would be here on earth, cost so much more than that. It cost his very own blood—his precious life. Will we let those bridges stay unused and refuse to let them open while we cling to our own agenda? 

We can think we have a very selfish, prideful man sitting in the President’s seat. We can think it’s all about him and what he wants. All about not being taken advantage of. And whether that is true or not, do I always see that in myself? Do I see the pride and self in the way I love the chasm? In the way I’m not ready for a bridge?

From one hurting soul to another, Jesus has gone ahead of us and built that bridge, complete with guard rails to catch us when we cross a bit shakily and think we might fall. And while sometimes our flesh wants to hold onto our small sense of power and tells us we don’t need to use the bridge, the bridge is still there. It’s still waiting. 

And if Jesus’ blood can bridge the gap between our sinful flesh and Heaven’s gates, we can surely allow his blood to bridge the gap between us and the hearts of our fellow travelers. Will we be held accountable for all the unused bridges? The ones that were purchased with his blood? In Heaven, there will be no chasms between us and the other citizens who obtain that land. And if there are no chasms there, we must not die with chasms. Those bridges must go with us. We must use them all the way to those streets of gold.

P.S. For those of you politically inclined, I don’t read the news enough to take sides or know the depth of why he blocked the bridge. But the way he spoke up on it sparked an inspiration of how we tend to not want bridges in our own lives.