The Great Builder

Psalm 127:1a Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain...

I am amazed at what carpenters and builders can do. They can take raw materials and make them into beautiful, functional, and practical things. When my son Brian was about 11-years old he came home and said he wanted me to help him build a birdhouse. I knew the day would come when one of my children was going to ask me to help them build something. My lack of carpentry and building skills were finally going to be exposed. However, I decided to give it a go. Maybe I just underestimated myself?

I decided to go online and print out the best birdhouse directions I could find. I collected my tools, my materials, and was ready to make this birdhouse. This was going to be the best birdhouse ever! As I started building, I realized I had the wrong thickness of wood. I thought to myself “this will be a reinforced birdhouse.” Then I realized I had cut the roof pieces slightly the wrong size. I thought to myself, “this will bring it artistic character”. With each mistake the directions I was using became more and more useless, until it reached a point I was improvising every detail.

The moment of truth arrived. It came time to put all the pieces together. As I fit the roof pieces together I soon realized that my “reinforced birdhouse” that had “artistic character” would not come together. In fact, my roof was more like a skylight, an “open roof concept”. My stomach sunk. This was not how it was supposed to look like. This was not how this was supposed to go. This birdhouse looked nothing like all the other birdhouses. I showed Brian what I had made. Needless-to-say he was not impressed.

I decided to hang it up anyways knowing that no self-respected bird would ever nest in this house. I was wrong!!! In fact, for years this house, with a hole in the roof, was sought after by all birds in the area. This monstrosity became a bird sanctuary. It looked nothing like what it was supposed to. It was made with the wrong materials. Cut and shaped in an unconventional way. Yet it worked! It was a refuge for birds of all kinds. I was amazed! I was dumfounded! To this day I am not sure why the local birds were so attracted to it.

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says: I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Jesus is the Great Builder, the Master Carpenter, that uses misshapen, wrong-sized, unconventional people to build his church. Christ’s local church never looks like what we think it will look like. However, when we are open to the leading of his Holy Spirit and being used in the way he wants to use us we are made into a community that exudes the dazzling Christ. It might not look “textbook” or as the “instructions” say it should look like. There will be a lot of improvising. However, if we submit to his masterful hand, people will flock to this house, not because it is perfect but because it is imperfect. It is in the imperfection that the beauty of Christ is gloriously seen and is attractive to those in need of mercy and grace.

Where is your place on this building project? Not sure? Let’s figure it out together. Please contact me at brian@middleton.org .

in Christ,

Pastor Brian