Wednesday2

While traveling in India I am repeatedly struck by the marble that is used everywhere for floors and walls and stacked like spare plywood around housing projects. While we see it as an exotic material in many parts of India it is not unusual at all.
This is my second posting for today. I was praying about things and the image of the beautiful marble we'd seen in India came to mind.
I suppose my fascination with marble started many years ago when I would go to the Biology and Zoology building at Ohio State University and the stairs were made of marble. But it was marble that had such age and use that there were worn parts in the stairs. They were beautiful to me and fascinating. That many footsteps had worn down this stone so that in places it was thin or had a scoop in it where feet had been.
Later in one of the first churches I served the pulpit had a marble part to it and just there-where your hands go there was a dent in the marble. It was not a chip it was where the marble had been worn by the hands of preachers who had stood in that very place and rubbed it as they shared God's word. It was beautiful and awesome in the history it witnessed. (There are similar wearings on many pulpits of wood evoking similar witness.)
These marks made by many footsteps and many hands witness to those who have gone before. These wearings also could be seen in some of the monuments and forts in India. These places changed by the many hands and feet that had walked before us.
Recognize too that each footstep does not leave an impact that you see rather it comes as one builds upon another. Rarely do we see the evidences of our life and that is all right.