God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. – Ephesians 2:8-10

It’s possible to find inspiration in a lot of different places, and I write about many of them here in this space. But my number one source – consistently – is people; and invariably those people move out of an anchoring of faith. They are good people – yes – but even our goodness, our compassion and our generosity, are gifts from God.

Our church family – Wake Forest Presbyterian – is full with people who live their faith through acts of service and generosity. Those generous acts are more than checkmarks on a list of Christian-ish things “to do,” they are extensions of themselves, the natural expression of of what it means to be a redeemed people, living faith out loud.

That’s what happened over the past few days when a couple of the men – Si and Paul – demonstrated their self-giving faith by building a handrail alongside the driveway to my parents’ home here in Wake Forest.

It’s a fairly steep incline, and we’d been talking about what to do for safety when Si stepped forward and volunteered for the job.

It took the best part of a week; anchoring the posts in concrete, measuring, cutting, capping off, assembling, staining. And what’s more, Si made his construction a work of art.

Hence the images. I don’t often photograph handrails, but craftsmanship, emerging out of hearts filled with faith and completed with love, can be a beautiful thing.

These men are God’s masterpiece, created anew in Jesus Christ, so they could do the good things [God] planned for them long ago….

– DEREK

Si staining

runs the length of the drive

Si and Paul