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Growing up in a carpenter union president’s home, I heard many interesting stories about building construction. The one about green wood is my favorite. 

Some of Dad’s chief enemies were non-union builders who used materials a union builder would never use. In one large tract of houses, he found a carpenter’s horror story. When the builder framed the more than 200 houses, he used green (not dried) two by fours. The sheetrock was nailed on the cheaper green studs, and the houses were then nailed up and completed.

Summer in Fresno came with its usual 100 degree plus temperatures and dried out the green wood. All of the initial good-looking houses—which people now lived in—had interior walls that looked like the wavy mirrors at a side-show. Dad was somewhat glad for the free publicity for buying union homes, but since the Lord had recently changed his heart, he also felt sorry for the people.

Growing up in my father and grandfather’s world of construction—and becoming a carpenter myself for three years—I didn’t know much except the construction approach to life. Then I started reading the Bible and was attracted to the fact that Jesus was a carpenter. I read about the master carpenter, Noah, and also about the building of the Tower of Babel—as well as many other accounts.

One of my favorite construction pieces was about building a house on sand—something no experienced carpenter would do—and about the predictable results. Only a dummy would build a house without a proper foundation.

Jesus is the rock I want to build my life on every day, I thought. My house will be secure as I watch this confused world try to live on a slippery slope. I often think the devil is also a builder—one who specializes in deceiving buyers into purchasing buildings that look good on the outside but have black mold hiding in the walls.

As you build your life, don’t pay the consequences of not using proper building materials.

(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)

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