There were some men on our street yesterday and today, and I couldn’t tell from the signs on their trucks what they were doing, so I asked. Turns out they were hired by our community to use a special process to rinse the sewer lines and then inspect the lines with a video camera to be sure all is well.

I made a point of thanking them for their work. I told them, “I’ve been to countries where there is no waste disposal of any kind. What you do might not be glamorous, but it is very important, and I appreciate it!” They seemed encouraged that I thanked them for their work. I don’t know how often that happens for them–they are probably “unsung heroes.”

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation…The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2.1 – 3, 15, ESV, emphasis mine)

The tongue has the power of life and death… (Proverbs 18.21, NIV, emphasis mine)