By the Waters of Babylon – Ps. 137:1
A mission team from an Ohio church came to help us right after Katrina went away. Among other things, they helped build a house for a low-income family up in Delisle. When they arrived, they found that the concrete footer for the house had been poured the previous week by another work crew. So, the first job of this new crew was to lay the foundation, using concrete blocks. They were working under the supervision of a professional house builder who was a part of their group; he didn’t just hand out the blocks and let them go with it. Instead, he, himself, first set the blocks in all four corners, to the full height of the foundation. Next, on his own, he laid the first row of bricks all the way around. Then, and only then, did he let the team members lay any bricks?
You see what this wide builder had done. HE made sure the cornerstones were square and true and the first row of bricks was set properly. That way, he assured that the amateurs on the team wouldn’t get the bricks too far out of line. A standard rule in building: Get the corners right, and the rest will line up properly. That is the lesson of the cornerstone!
We are called to be building blocks in God’s kingdom, but if we don’t do it properly and together, we can become stumbling blocks in the way of others working for the Lord.
Image by Dean Moriarty from Pixabay
