It’s certain that God’s work is not shoddily-produced. He pronounced all that He created good – and it was. Dorothy Sayers once rightly suggested that our own work “must be good work before it can call itself God’s work.”

But good work is often no more than simple work, faithfully and lovingly repeated.

I was reminded of the lasting value of good, simple work last week, when a childhood friend of mine died. His name was Bob Keeshan, but I knew him for years as Captain Kangaroo.

We met each morning through the magic of television – he in a conductor’s coat with deep pockets, a cap set on top of his bowl haircut and mustachioed face – me in my footie pajamas and bed hair, holding a bowl of Fruit Loops and milk in two hands.

He had friends, and he introduced me to them: Tom Terrific, Mr.Green Jeans, Mr. Moose and a great, sleeping grandfather clock. I knew him in black and white, but his simple work colored my world. I came to love animals, and rhymes and even getting up early (still a habit today) through my good friend the Captain.

He didn’t wow me with special effects (there weren’t any). He didn’t even teach in the clever way that Sesame Street would inform the generation after mine. He just showed up, morning after morning, day after day for over 30 years, doing the kind of good work that he loved.

And I wasn’t the only child who loved him for it.

Captain Kangaroo’s work (and a recent, welcome change in my own work life) has made me think again about my responsibility as a believer to do good work. It was also Dorothy Sayers who said, “The very first demand that his religion should make upon a carpenter is that he should make good tables. No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever, I dare say, came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth.”

When I remarked to my sister that, for the first time in 23 years I was not reporting to someone, she stunned me with this: “Leigh, you’re working for the same One you’ve always worked for. Nothing’s changed.” She was right.

I have the same boss and the same charge as ever: to faithfully, lovingly do good work. To make good tables, to the glory of the One who made me.

Thanks, Lynn. Thanks Captain. I’m off to the shop for another day.

“Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being Christian doesn’t cover up bad work.” (Colossians 3:23-25, The Message.)