There is a story told about two brothers who lived next to one another. For many years they got along quite well, but one day they had a terrible disagreement. Tempers flared, angry words were exchanged and the brothers became estranged from one another.

One brother had some lumber delivered to his property and called for a contractor to come out to his place. When the contractor arrived, he explained that he wanted a tall fence built along the edge of his property, so that he wouldn’t even have to look at his brother’s place. He said, “I’m going on a business trip. I’ll be back in a week, and I expect you to have the fence built by then.”

A week passed, and the brother returned from his trip. But instead of the fence that he expected to find, he discovered that the contractor had built a bridge across the stream that separated the two brothers’ property. The man was livid! He was just about to go inside to call the contractor to complain, but he saw his brother rush out of his house. He ran across the bridge, gave him a hug and exclaimed, “Oh, my brother! After all the terrible things I said to you, you built a bridge to bring us together!”

Instead of building fences in the church and in the community, why don’t we build more bridges?

Psalm 133:1—“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!”