Brick by Brick…

This past April, we suffered some significant damage at our home as the result of a hail storm. We have insurance and things will be okay, but I have spent the past month or so working with a brick company that is doing some repair work around our home. We have experienced some bricks breaking and we have had to have a wall at the top of our driveway torn down and replaced using new matching brick.

We have also had scaffolding forty feet in the air as the construction crew has had to replace a number of bricks in the chimney. I guess all this didn’t have to be done right now, but it made sense to do it before the new roof goes on.

While we are thrilled to have this project behind us, as the crew finished yesterday, I really appreciated the skill of the people involved and I learned more about bricks and masonry than I ever thought possible. During the past three weeks, I have been privileged to get to know these men who have been brickmasons their entire careers. I learned about kinds of mortar, how bricks are fired, the way to construct things for the greatest strength and how the builder of our home could have considered different ways of building the house when it was under construction back in 2003.

In all honesty, we have been in this home almost seven years and have never considered the beauty of the structure and the workmanship that went into building it. Now, I look at things quite differently than I did a month ago.

The owner of the company and several others on the project are God centered believers. They attend church and want to make sure that their actions correctly represent a Christ centered life. It was a joy getting to know them. As the project moved forward, I was amazed at the attitude they had of concentrating on one brick at a time. Although they had a vision of what the finished product would look like, doing the little stuff day to day was the focus they maintained. If each course of bricks is done correctly, the next level will take care of itself – that ‘s great advise for life as well.

It occurred to me that our faith lives are very similar to this. Although we all know that our future is in heaven, we generally concentrate on the the little things of the faith and build our relationship with God brick by brick – one step at a time. It’s not necessary to know everything right now – just knowing the next step and how we build a lasting, strong faith, is what we should be concentrating on. Similarly, our actions speak volumes to others and the quality of our daily lives should set a good example for others.

Another thing I learned is that these is no benefit to rushing the brickwork. It took a little longer than expected, but the results are spectacular. The same is true with building a God centered life. It’s not about speed – it’s about quality.

Our verse for today is simple one from Hebrews 3:4, “For every house is build by someone, but God is the builder of everything…” No matter how much we think that anything manmade is wonderful, we can’t even begin to imagine all that God has done and the grace that He has extended to each of us. And it is important to realize that the Creator is more important than the creation.

My encouragement tonight is that God wants us to build a solid relationship with Him. And how well we build that relationship, brick by brick, is far more important than how fast we build it. My prayer is that each of us takes the time to build a firm foundation for our faith and that we will always concentrate on the next step in our relationship with Christ – ever mindful that Jesus already knows that what His Father’s house in heaven looks like. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…