01 He knew things I'd never know How to read the grain, which way it'd go How to build a thing to outlive the man How to push past quit with his own two hands Cancer sat him in a swivel chair Necktie knot and recycled air The doctors and the bills made their demands But God don't waste a workin' man's hands
02 You can't teach a river to run in place Then a hammer found his hand And it fit like faith
03 The carpenter — measures twice, cuts once Half the words, twice the trust First to show, last to go Straight as a chalk line snapped Plumb and level, square and true The straightest thing I ever knew Is the carpenter
04 Raise it up... raise it up Bones and beams and callused love Raise it up... raise it up
05 Twenty years since they said the word He's outbuilt every odd he's heard Drug me up a mountain, single file Half of me is him and he don't know it Blood don't make you brothers — showin' up does Same porch light, same settin' sun I do the thinkin', he holds the line A level's no good without the beam
06 The carpenter — measures twice, cuts once Half the words, twice the trust First to show, last to go Straight as a chalk line snapped Plumb and level, square and true The straightest thing I ever knew Is the carpenter
07 Raise it up... raise it up Bones and beams and callused love Raise it up... raise it up
08 They say grow where God plants you, boy That's hard ground for a country boy He thinks all he builds is houses Funny Every inch of the man I am Bears the mark of his framing hand 'Cause that's the thing about a load-bearing friend You can't tell who's holdin' who up in the end
09 'Cause the good Lord swung a hammer too And He builds a man from the men around him He's still buildin' me — He's still buildin' you!
10 The carpenter — measured twice, 'cause God cuts once Half the words, all of 'em love Don't tell him I said that Nail by nail, year by year We built each other standin' here Plumb and level, square and true The straightest thing I ever knew Built me too
11 Raise it up... raise it up Bones and beams and callused love Raise it up... raise it up We built each other standin' here
12 Every man's a house half framed And the Carpenter knows your name
Words and music by Nathanael Joseph. © Nathanael Joseph Ende. All rights reserved. Quote a line with credit; please don't reprint the whole song.
