IT’S LIKE MAGIC
It’s fascinating to see imperfect products and people come together to create something beautiful and inspiring. It’s like magic. You take a bunch of ugly things and sprinkle them all together, stir the pot, and voila, you get beauty. But it’s never that simple…
It’s no secret that part of what I do is build. Design first, then build. It’s messy from inception. From dust, stickers, cactus, and watching out for rattle snakes to determine the best floorpan and placement, to the smear of the pencil lead on the preliminary sketch.
The process seems more civilized and clean once the drawings are put onto a computer, but that’s an illusion. Since the person sitting in front of a computer doing the drawings isn’t perfect, the plans follow suit. There are always flaws to fix, without exception.
During the all out battle to make the structure plumb, level, and square, there is danger and noise and physical fatigue. While there aren’t any tears in the process, there are always blood and sweat.
The noise and dust of excavators to concrete, lumber, trusses, cranes, and all sorts of delivery trucks is constant. Keeping people alive in the fight for safety against gravity is also constant.
A few years back a painter either removed, or at minimum knew a safety rail wasn’t in place in front of an elevator shaft and didn’t notify us, which is protocol and part of the safety program that he signed. He walked backward into the shaft… A blood test showed that he was on drugs at the time. We got sued anyway… and he’s fine…
The end product isn’t indicative of the battle to make it look like it does. It’s almost like magic.
The process of building brings me to the place of pondering how God uses the lives of broken people, and we are all broken people, to accomplish His perfect will and purpose. It’s like magic. It is the supernatural acts of broken lives and things put together in an impossible way to show His sovereignty, grace, and love.
We know we’re not perfect. And yet we know too that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.” It’s like magic to the ones that don’t know Him. To us that do; we know it’s a miracle. And it happens every day.
Sunday, April 28, 2019 @ 6:18 pm
Oh, golly, Floyd. This is a wonderful meditation in itself. But I am remarking also on the photograph! What a beautiful building! Congratulations, you “broken” man…who happens also to be a fine aesthetic designer.
Monday, April 29, 2019 @ 4:31 am
Well said, Floyd. Love the analogy and the hope and encouragement it offers all of us!
Monday, April 29, 2019 @ 7:43 am
You may be “broken,” Floyd, as we all are, but oh, my! God has blessed you with a marvelous talent, and you’re using it well. Love the photos!
Blessings, my brother!
Monday, April 29, 2019 @ 11:53 am
I am definitely agreeing with Dikkon on this. Beautiful building. But like you have said, getting to the finished product is never easy. Sort of like God’s work in and on me. Thankful he never stops or never gives up and the end is better than the start of the in between. Beautiful work my friend.
Monday, April 29, 2019 @ 5:42 pm
Building is kind of like us between birth and heaven. God works on His design daily to mature us and makes us more like the original design, perfect. How often we walk into the elevator shaft and blame Him. I am so grateful He is long suffering and never gives up. My son works for Premier Interior Development Inc. , he is their safety man and covers a few other areas. They build a lot of things at LAX, and other airports. Also big stores like Macy’s, big churches. sometimes he has to be at the site at 3 am in the morning to oversee the cranes work. It’s interesting to see him grow in his knowledge of working with so many kind of people who do so many kinds of things. We pray a lot for him because all it takes is one piece of the design going wrong to hold up a job, one person to make one mistake and it cost thousands. Knowing all the behind details that goes on at a job site makes the finish rewarding. He will be going back to Austin airport soon for the opening of a food court his company built and he worked on personally. Somehow I envision a smile on God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit as we enter into heaven completely perfect despite all the failures here on earth. I too agree, beautiful building brother, your trade has given you wisdom that always had a touch of God in it.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019 @ 11:19 am
It seems like magic to me. I can’t even imagine all the individual steps that go into a building like that. I’m glad the guy wasn’t hurt, but sorry you got sued anyway. You’re an amazing building, Floyd!
Tuesday, April 30, 2019 @ 11:20 am
It seems like magic to me. I can’t even imagine all the individual steps that go into a building like that. I’m glad the guy wasn’t hurt, but sorry you got sued anyway. You’re an amazing builder, Floyd!
Tuesday, April 30, 2019 @ 6:00 pm
WOW! What a beautiful creation! It must be so gratifying to stand back and take in the finished product after so much hard work and planning. God has blessed you with many gifts, brother.