Every pothole shall be exalted, every speed bump and mound made low

No big yellow taxi here. Sometimes, you don't know what you've got til it's here.

So here is this beautiful, "new" building, the Gibson's department store building, Idelman Telemarketers building, whatever it once was called, a building that sat vacant for a very long time, waiting for a new purpose.

And now people from every walk of life, with a whole variety of skills, worked together to make this building into a place of worship -- and it's beautiful.

You kind of wander around in awe as you see old and new faces also wandering around in awe.

The chalkboard walls - awesome! The nursery - state of the art. I actually got to hear the sermon and could even control the volume while working in the nursery! The signs Brian Schultz and Barb Klein made. I saw men up high on dangerous looking machines installing ceiling tiles and men with more dangerous looking machines cutting things in what will be the kitchen.

I saw Bob Marler in a secret back room with dangerous looking wires and connections on the walls, working with all kinds of hanging doors.

I saw Theresa Heupel, so intent on scraping paint from door panes that she was standing up out of her wheelchair to reach spots of paint up high!

I saw my dentist on his knees cutting carpet for those hard to fit places. Only someone with fine motor skills like a dentist could do that kind of job!

I saw Jacob Mellette running a roller over carpet and Rod Johnson down low doing something with carpet trim. There were many, many people I didn't see, working day and night to build a place for people to worship the Lord.

And the result is the gorgeous building that you can only walk around in with your mouth hanging open.

Then, there is the parking lot. Someone said it would cost another 80- 100 thousand dollars to resurface it, and you can see why. Dips and gullies, huge craters and lumps, cracks, lines, hills and lakes and rivers. It seems like an overwhelming problem. After spending so much on the building and working so hard, how can we possibly take care of the parking lot? What will we do? How is God going to provide for this challenge?

(I thought that once a month everyone should bring a bag of gravel and fill a pothole, but no one is too enthusiastic about that idea.)

But leaving alone after prayer this Sunday, I took another look at this vast, uneven surface and words from Isaiah came to me: Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shalll see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Has spoken it (Messianic group Lamb lyrics repeat "Has spoken it.")

Isaiah wasn't talking about parking lots. I think he was probably talking about justice. Everything will be paid for someday. Justice will be done. Somehow, though, the words just fit. Someday, somehow, that surface will be smooth as glass, or almost. He will provide. He will shock us and put us in awe once again. I don't know how, but I know it will happen.