The Bridge Builder

Sometime during the 1980's I attended an IBM conference. One of the speakers used the following to close his address.

An old man going a lone highway

Came at the evening, cold and gray,

To a chasm vast and wide and steep,

With waters rolling cold and deep.

The old man crossed in the twilight dim,

The sullen stream had no fears for him;

But he turned when safe on the other side

And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,

“You are wasting your strength with building here.

Your journey will end with the passing day,

You never again will pass this way.

You’ve crossed the chasm deep and wide,

Why build you this bridge at eventide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head,

“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said

“There followeth after me today

A youth whose feet must pass this way.

The chasm that was as nought to me

To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.

He too, must cross in the twilight dim – 

Good friend, I am building this bridge for him.”

As I read this I couldn't help think of another bridge builder who built a bridge from earth to heaven. God the Father sent his Son to earth to prepare people to cross with him the bridge he was going to build with his blood as he died on the cross for our sin. His death and resurrection established the bridge. It is now our job to guide people to the builder of this bridge so that he can take them across.