Photo and Commentary ©2026 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday and Monday, July 12 and 13, 2026
Those of you who are regular readers of our church’s Daily Photo Parables (thank you!) may have noticed that I’ve written a lot recently about our neighborhood’s street paving project. If so, you have probably concluded that I am easily entertained!
That’s true. I am sad to report that the construction crew has pulled all the big rigs from their staging area, leaving only a few small pieces of equipment to take care of some finishing touches, one of which you see in my photo above.
In addition to digging up the streets to a depth of two inches, replacing water mains, and repaving, the crew also dug up this small piece of sidewalk and left it, dirt exposed, for several weeks. Then one morning as we rounded the bend into this cul-de-sac, we saw a man with a long-handled tool, carefully creating a brand-new sidewalk.
I was pleased to see him at work, in part because he seemed to be pleased with what he was doing. He smiled as he smoothed the surface into place.
Every day now when we walk down this sidewalk I picture him at work, and think how much enjoyment and contentment we experience when we create something good, whether it’s a meal or a song or a story or a garden or a photo or a spreadsheet or a friendship or a sidewalk.
I think that must be because our Creator designed us to be creators, too – not only to populate the earth with other human beings, but to bring beauty and goodness into being, as He does. He invites us to join Him, co-creating, and when we lay down our tools (woks or pianos or words or hoes or cameras or laptops or conversations or cement smoothers) we can, with Him, look at what we’ve created, and say with a smile, “It is good.”