It is dusty, noisy, and very inconvenient…and necessary. I’m referring to the road work being done on Ft. Meigs Rd, just outside of my ‘River’s Edge’ subdivision. The work often means I drive a couple of miles south on some other road in order to come north through the back way, an unpaved road, to my street. My car hasn’t been clean for weeks, but it makes no sense washing it; it will be dirty again within minutes.

At the same time, the road work is very welcomed. The road, built for a different era, was way too narrow. The ditch on the west side, one of the deepest and steepest ditches in northern Wood County, is always there waiting to swallow up our cars. Yes, we need this road work, and the new wider road will be so much safer.

I walked over to the roadway to watch the men at work. Not wearing a hardhat, I stayed far enough away to be safe. Trucks were coming and going. Caterpillars were moving gravel and digging away berm. And the big roller was waiting for its chance to flatten it all down. 

Is there a lesson? Yes. Sometimes we have to go through a time of construction with all its aggravation and frustration in order to have something that we really need. Life has lots of occasions for building and rebuilding.

“A voice proclaims: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!’”

Isaiah 40:3