Belgian blocks

Have you ever walked down a cobble stone road and, after not tripping, stopped and truly looked at the craftsmanship of the road?  Each block had to be laid in by hand, individually placed, individually aligned with its neighbor to ensure a uniformly, somewhat smooth surface.  The mortar, too, was laid by hand in between each block to securely fasten the blocks thus permitting passage along the road.  This process had you take weeks, even months; the impeccable  craftsmanship came at a price of time.  In the time of cobble stone or Belgian block roads care was taken with projects, a road may be impassable for months but when it was finished, not only was it beautiful, it was crafted with care, marked by durable masonry and quality products.  Roads marked the land and cities flourished with movement as passage brought about camaraderie and income.  Free to move about the land, people explored, they discovered, they created and lived.  Life with purpose was life gloried in the Father; utilizing talents was a way to praise the Father.  People were moved by the land for it was viewed as a gift to be worked, to be maintained, to be used as life for life was tied to the land as the land was gifted by God.  The pace of life quickened, out went talented craftsmanship, in came short cuts and means to become financial tycoons.  Poured concrete replaced Belgian blocks and while streets were functionally they lacked character and were no longer beautiful.  Instead of being moved by the land, we moved the land to suit our needs and purpose driven lives became driven lives labeled by financial success.  Trending this movement, urban jungles line the land as concrete covers cities, erected buildings block the sun, commotion deafens the streets and hastened steps finds one lost and alone.  The idea of craftsmanship is liken to that of carriage, beautiful and functional but impractical and noisy; why drive a carriage when you can drive a hybrid SUV?  While God can be heard speaking in our urban jungles, it is a matter of slowing down to listen, to see, to feel His presence among us.  Gifted with the earth, we continue to make our mark erecting new buildings, new cities and cultivating the land; but we are also gifted with faith.  Faith, our ability to feel comfort in the unknowns of our world, has been placed in our hearts by God.  Hand laid in our soul, faith is the essence of our being, the truth of our Godly connect.  Like each Belgian block laid by its crafter, we, God's children, are individually touched by our crafter, God.  Our crafter knows our heart, touches our soul and lifts us in love that we may know our worth and recognize our beauty.  Discovery of our worth, recognition of our beauty becomes increasingly difficult in a world moved by financial gain, saturated in pride and drowning in egotism.  Faith seems to be overshadowed by pressures projected by society in conjunction with the mind's need of conformity.  If we but remember the cobble stone road, if we but take a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship of the road we can but look deep into ourselves and see God in our midst.  Plagued by obsessions, faith morphs into religion and religiosity becomes but a paver along the roadside, quickly absorbed into the molten asphalt.  Soon faith, talents, needs, wants and obsessions become so juxtaposed that priorities are skewed and life is a debacle of sorts where we find ourselves rushing along life's path neglecting our true purpose.  Jockeying for purpose, if faith pulls ahead life settles in the crafters arms and each block hand placed with love and affection; yet if societal obsessions pull ahead the life never settles and we find ourselves constantly searching for the perfectly paved road that our travel may be quiet, without bumps and seemingly uneventful.  When is the last time you drove down a road and did not see or hit a pothole?  Life is filled with pothole, filled with broken roads, with Belgian blocks not perfectly aligned in height yet still very passable roads.  We may constantly be on the run, we may constantly rush through life getting from one event to another, so much so that our surroundings become blurred and life becomes a hassle or we can settle into the beauty which is our own, our faith.  Life holds before us the opportunity to enjoy the land or cut through the land; we can lay each brick with the care of our Crafter, God, or we can haphazardly pour the asphalt in the hopes that all of the cracks will be filled.  No matter the route we choose, God will walk with us, He will pick us up when we fall and He will run with us when we scare; His love for us is never ending thus our road will never end.  A road under the construction of faith is a road intrinsically beautiful and perpetually manicured for the mortar between each brick is love, God's unconditional love, offered in truth, resting in peace and though the road may have its bumps, it will remain ever secure, no sink holds will be encountered for our beings safely fastened to the Father's heart.  A road created from seemingly nothing, its path is that of splendor and holiness for it is the road bonded by faith; the heart its mortar.  This road, our soul, has imprinted the words of the Father:

Block by block the road begins to form

Mortar poured between to strengthen its bond

Time, it passes

Beauty comes to life

A road now marked by a trade that has come to pass

Talent for talent a being begins to form

Faith poured out to strengthen its bond

Time, it passes

Beauty comes to life

A being now marked by a Creator that has come to love

Worn blocks, slippery when wet

Blocks, they move and shift with earthen settlement

Time causes mortar to crumble

Slowly some blocks rise, others they crack

But the road still beautiful, still a masterpiece 

Worn beings, susceptible to hurt

Beings, they wonder and fret when life becomes unsettled

Time causes minds to question

Slowly some beings rise above the doubt, others fall prey to societal demands

But the being still beautiful, still a masterpiece 

A masterpiece of faith we have come to be if we but let the Father take our hand and place each block; block for block a road develops, our lives develop as faith lived in the light of the Son.