“Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” (James 3:13, ESV)

I live about 20 minutes from Longwood Gardens, a sprawling botanical garden that covers over a thousand acres. Between the Terrace Restaurant and the Conservatory, there’s a lot of construction going on to improve and expand visitor experience. You can hear the roar of the heavy equipment moving the earth out of the way in service to the construction plans. They’ve got a big wall set up around the area to keep the public out and to allow the equipment its space to maneuver. In that wall, they have placed windows so that people can look in and see all that’s going on, and see the project as it takes shape.

That’s what James does in this text. He says our hearts are loud with the sound of activity. The construction crew of wisdom is at work, busy with the building project of our lives. James calls us over to the window to peer in. And what he calls our attention to is not just all the fascination of the heavy equipment rumbling around. He calls our attention to the manufacturer of the machinery, and tells us to take a careful look.