Many years ago a man was on a journey. As he began to enter one village, he noticed that it seemed more prosperous than many he had been through. As he continued along the main road, he found himself before a large construction site. He wondered what was being built.
There were three men working near the road. So he approached one of them and asked him what he was doing. The man was clearly annoyed by this interruption. He looked up from his work with contempt in his eyes. “Can’t you see what I’m doing? I’m chiseling this huge rock into smaller stones. I’ve been doing it for years; and it looks like I’ll be doing it until the day I die.” He muttered something under his breath the traveler was glad he couldn’t understand and went back to his work.
Still curious about the project, the traveler moved on to the next man who was engaged in the same activity just a few yards farther on. “Can you tell me what you are doing?”
The man relaxed his grip on his hammer and looked up. He seemed pleased for the chance to take a break. “We are shaping these stones to build a wall here,” he said as he pointed along the ditch that lay beside him. “It’s hard work, but I’m glad for the opportunity to earn the money to provide a home and food for my wife and children.” He looked back down at the stone on his bench and raised his hammer once again.
“Better,” the traveler thought to himself; but he still didn’t have any news worth sharing. There was one more man busy chiseling stone. “Perhaps this fellow can tell me more.”
“Excuse me. Can you tell me what you are doing?”
Like the others, the man was covered with dust and his hands were rough; but he laid down his hammer, straightened his back, and looked toward the sky. As he raised his hands over his head, his face broke into a huge smile. “We are building a cathedral—a shrine to God. It will be a light for the world and will proclaim God’s glory to generations yet unborn.”
John tells the community of believers, “It is not yet clear what we shall become. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2). As we live in the light of the glory of the resurrected Christ, may we more clearly catch the vision that “we are now God's children.” Let that reality give you power to live a life of faith—especially when the work is hard.
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