Bryant Park in Manhattan has a long interesting history. In 1934 the park was raised four feet above street level and a hedge was installed around the park. It had formerly been an eyesore so it was a celebrated change but when I was growing up the park was a well-known drug den and you took your life in your hands if you went there at night.
In a recent renovation, they took down the hedges and changed many things. The hedges had created the wrong kind of privacy.
I haven't been back recently but from what I understand the neighborhood has changed drastically. It has been attributed in part to the changes in Bryant Park.
Reading this history it made me think of the value of transparency and not placing people or institutions up so high that you can no longer see what is going on from street level.
Jesus was right out there living His life. When he spoke he did it among the people on their level. He was a man who 'had no place to lay His head'. His home was out among the crowds. He didn't have any back rooms.
Privacy is wonderful. I love my privacy but I also realize that I can't live in the shadows. It isn't healthy.
"This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." - 1 John 1:5-7 ESV
Yes. Let's walk in the light and design our spaces so that light shines in. It is a healthy prosperous way to live.
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