Little Boxes

When I was growing up Pete Seger released a song called Little Boxes. The music sounded like a song for children, but the lyrics by Malvina Reynolds were a protest against the dullness of modern suburbia.

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

About 5000 houses in Christchurch have been allocated to the red zone. If Christians are ten percent of the population, nearly 500 Christians could be planning to build new homes at the same time. Many others will have to rebuild their houses on the same site. I hope that they don’t just build more little boxes made out of ticky tacky that are the same as the world is building.

I hope that Christian architects and builders will come with plans for new housing developments that are designed to strengthen the cohesiveness of neighbourhoods and local communities. If they could create an exciting vision for living differently, this could be a wonderful opportunity.

Many Christians seem to planning to move out to the small towns on the outskirts of the city. I can understand why they would want to get away from the liquefaction and destruction, but I am not sure how that fits with God’s plan for the city. If the devil was trying to destroy his God’s work, and Christians leave the place where God is working, the Kingdom of God could be held back.