Bricks.

     A Fable Inspired by a Sermon from My Pastor.

     The Master wanted to build.  He loves making things.  He needed bricks for this job, but His bricks are profoundly different than the standard red rectangles.  He did make a large amount of those, but there were bricks of every size, shape, and color.  The Master made them as He wanted them, called them all to Him, and then, inexplicably, left for a bit.  His only instruction was, "Love each other.  I will be back."

    At first, the bricks sat in their pile and waited with excitement.  But then, something happened wrong.  The red rectangles started screaming that they knew best, and after all, they were the "standard, most popular" bricks.  They left and sat in a wheelbarrow by themselves.  After a while the purple ovals, yellow squares, green circles, and orange stars followed suit.  The workspace was now filled with screaming bricks that were very neatly sorted.  This had to be what the Master intended, right?

     Everything was at least at a cool civil phase until the smug red rectangles noticed that they had somehow ended up with a yellow in their wheelbarrow.  Yellow was a happy brick.  She did not know that she was really that different.  She was a brick after all.  But the reds were not happy.  Yellow was there in their wheelbarrow it was inconceivable.  She had to be converted.  They said, "Cover that!  You are the wrong shape and size!  Fix it quick, we all know red rectangles is what the Master intended!"  Yellow had always been in the red wheelbarrow.  She had known no other life so she left to go fix it.

    First Yellow rolled in red terra cotta clay from the south.  It really didn't work.  As soon as she got wet the red washed off.  Her shame was exposed.  Then Yellow wandered into the workshop and found red paint.  At first, she was thrilled with the result, but after time, the paint flaked off and she was now spotty yellow.  Returning to the workshop Yellow found red stain.  When she finished, she was spotty ghastly orange.  

Yellow started to cry

     The Master, who really hadn't gone all that far, heard her sobs and saw her tears.  "Yellow!"  He said, "What has happened to you!  I need you now there is a space for you and you are red and ghastly orange spotty."  Yellow sniffled.  She told her sad story and the Master cried with her.  He held her and took her to the wall he was building.  She gasped.  

     Yellow saw that there were a rainbow of bricks being used.  Not just in standard rows either.  It was a sight to behold.  There were swirls, loops, Greek keys, and arches.  It was simply the most amazing thing Yellow had ever seen.  Then she saw it.  Yellow saw the spot where she was to fit.  There would be no other color for it.  Yellow was what He needed to complete that part of the pattern.  She cried all the more.  

     The Master smiled, "I can fix it, but it will hurt."  He took her to the work station and poured paint stripper on her and let it sit.  It burned like fire.  He scraped it off and took small chunks of her with the paint.  Then came the sanding.  He sanded away the stained layer but a crack had formed in the center.  Oh she was so broken and sad!  When it all seemed hopeless, the Master picked up a bucket of yellow mud.  "I made you exactly as I wanted you to be.  I have more of the clay here and I will fix it good as new."  With His own hands He filled in the missing chunks and sculpted her back to the way that He intended her to be.  After He blew the clay dry pouring healing into her heart, He said, "I love you and you are beautiful Yellow.  Come and be in my wall."  

     With expert hands He scraped the thick mortar onto her back and fit her into the spot He had always intended her to fill.  She laughed.  She sang.  She fit.  Her life was completed in Him and in His work.