God the Builder

“For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.”

Hebrews 3:4

“I built it” is a phrase I have not been able to say many times in my life. My father can do almost anything with his hands.  As for me, I was at my limit once things advanced beyond popsicle sticks and sandcastles. Sharing in work projects, I have seen the pride and knowledge from those who are skillful builders.  When you make something with your own two hands there is an understanding and appreciation that only the builder has.  A part of himself or herself is reflected in what is produced.  How appropriate was it that the creator and builder of all things would be born a carpenter?  Not only would he understand the formation from wood or stone to structure, but from the very formation of the seed and the earth.       

John 1:10-13 captures this understanding.  John explains the irony, “He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him” (vs. 11).  Here is the builder and maker and his own creation does not know him.  Pride has a way of blinding us from basic truth.  We are such arrogant creatures when we assume that what we have is by our own doing.  Even when we make or do something we must acknowledge that we can only do so because God has given and enabled us to do so.  I once had a friend who grew up in a household that was unbelieving.  When we were in High School I helped lead him to faith in Christ, but he had to deal with antagonism from his father.  He tried to discourage my friend’s faith in God telling him things like, “God did not put food on the table, I did that!”  Because God is invisible we can start to believe in the illusion that we are self-sustaining beings.  We take for granted the grace of God that gives us life with each breath we take.  He alone is the builder of all good things.  Without him all is death.  

When we deny God the glory he is due for the many wonders he has wrought, we run the risk of being deceived as my friend’s father.  Instead, we need to daily take the time to embrace that beauty of what God is doing around us.  He is the master builder.  The world reveals the mighty works of his hands.  We can see his imprint in the lives of the people he has made.  We see his love, truth, grace, and we must declare, “How great thou art!”