The Parable of the Builder of Highways and the Surveyor

One day while teaching, Josh was asked, ”Teacher, what do you think Martin Luther King would have said had he seen that on the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the march from Selma to Montgomery, an African American president of the United States received the Medal of Distinction from the president of Israel?”

Josh spoke thus:

A builder of highways and a company surveyor were looking at a river that ran through the middle of a steep mountain valley.

“It makes me think of the song,” the company surveyor said, “Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough.”

“Do you know,” the builder of highways said, “That there’s a point in Minnesota, where you can walk across the Mississippi?  I got that from a song.”

“This isn’t the Mississippi, and we’re not in Minnesota,” the company surveyor said.

“All rivers start somewhere,” the builder of highways said.

“And all rivers have to be crossed somewhere else,” the company surveyor said.

“Moses wasn’t allowed to cross the River Jordan,” the builder of highways said.

“Moses crossed the Red Sea, Moses wandered the Sinai, Moses climbed to the mountaintop, Moses made the Nile run red,” the company surveyor said, “Moses did plenty.”

“Are you saying it’s the journey that matters?” the builder of highways asked.

“I’m saying the destination isn’t always where you think it is,” the company surveyor said.

“A road has to lead somewhere,” the builder of highways said.

“But not everyone follows it to the end,” the company surveyor said.

“And not everyone stops when the road stops,” the builder of highways said.

“That’s why we’ll always have jobs,” the company surveyor said.

“I’d like to cross this river,” the builder of highways said.

“There are a lot of people who would like to see you do it,” the company surveyor said.

“There are a lot of people who would stop me if they could,” the builder of highways said.

“I just show you where you are,” the company surveyor said, “I don’t tell you where to go.”

“I will cross to the other side of this river,” the builder of highways said.

The company surveyor pointed and said, “It’s over there.”