It was a chilly morning he could see his breath as he strapped on his worn and dusty work apron.
He walked to the wood stove, opened the door door then walked to his scrap pile of wood and picked up piece after piece. With each piece he raised his eyebrow and squinted down on the wood, as if to ask a question, will you or won’t you? Then he would pause as if waiting for the wood to respond to an unasked question. With some he would shake his head slowly and sadly and toss the piece of wood into the fire.
With some pieces he would purse his lips in a slight smile, eye brows raised in approval and nod and toss the wood onto his work table.
It seemed the wood was choosing its own fate; the work bench or wood stove.
Once the fire was roaring and the room was warm, the carpenter went to work.
The workshop seemed to be cluttered with pieces and parts of many different kinds of furniture. It seemed to have no rhyme or reason. There were spindles and chair back slats, chair seats, cupboard doors and dressers, and drawers, rockers without chairs and chairs without rockers, cabinets, and parts of stairs wells, Newell posts, and every other odd piece and part to make any and every kind of furniture. It may have seemed cluttered and a jumble but each piece and part was known by the carpenter. Each piece and part had a purpose and a plan to be fit into a larger piece. As needed the pieces would form a group that had a purpose. A chair or table or night stand or a pulpit, a bench, a stool, a set of stairs, a bed, all types and all kinds and all styles.
The carpenter never seemed to be in a hurry to finish a part. He would slowly shape and mold each piece, cutting, filing, rasping, chiseling, sanding and re-sanding, until each piece was ready. Occasionally a piece of wood would split or crack. Again the carpenter would look intently at the wood, holding it up to the light with one eyebrow raised and a slight tilt of the head,
His face asked “will you or won’t you?”
Then the pause, with an unspoken answer to an unspoken question the piece was repaired or was tossed into the fire. If repairs were the course taken, The glue applied and the clamps would be pressed on with incredible force and pressure, and then left to dry, to seal and repair the damage and make the piece stronger than it was to begin with.
The others, resistant to repair, refusing the glue and clamps would be taken to the fire. The carpenters face was always sad when the piece was tossed into the flames.
The unspoken question was to the piece of wood, will you or won’t you submit to my plans for you? The carpenter had plans, good plans, plans to incorporate and use every piece of wood in his work shop. Every piece and part would be as smooth as it needed to be, and take the shape required of it. Some pieces were put into a hot bath and the bent and pressed into a shape they never realized they could be. Some would be joined, pressed and glued to others that were different species and different colors and made more beautiful by their combined assemblage. Not one piece was left unchanged. The carpenter had a purpose and a place and s plan for any and all who would entrust themselves to his hands.
For those who would not submit? Sadly, it was the fire.
Jeremiah 29:11-14a
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity.
God has a perfect plan for each one of us. To prosper us. That word prosper doesn’t mean to make us rich, rather it means to allow us to live to our full potential, to fully and completely be used to the best of our ability. To serve in the sweet spot where our gifts and abilities fit the needs of those around us.
God is committed to finish what he has started in us. We don’t need to fear reprisals or condemnation from him. If we get sidetracked or sidelined by life he waits for us to rejoin his plan. He is the God of completion.
“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil 1:3-6
The image of God tossing someone into the flames- it’s not the warm fuzzy view of the permissive God who winks at sin and rebellion. God wants our obedience. We do have a choice. Our choice is not “submit and obey or die in the flames of hell!!!!”, no! our choice is, will we receive God’s gift of salvation and forgiveness and submit ourselves to his plan? If we want his forgiveness but bristle at submitting to his plan then we will not receive either forgiveness nor his plan to finish his work on and in us. He cannot be our savior if he is not also our Lord.
If we will not allow him control of our life, then we have chosen to be separated from him forever and that will be hell for us.
God is a skilled craftsman. There is no carpentry imagery in scripture that I am aware of. However The Bible shows us in Jeremiah God’s working with Israel as a potter works on clay. Same idea, different medium.
Jeremiah 18. The potter and the clay.
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear[a] my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.”
In the potters shed there is a wheel for forming, a shelf for drying and an oven for hardening. The process goes from one difficult thing to another but in the end the clay that was dirt beneath the potters feet becomes something useful and sometimes beautiful. It could be a bed pan for service or a vase for beautiful flowers or a cup or a bowl give drink to the thirsty or to feed the hungry. If the clay will surrender to the potter something good will become of it.
Jesus came to save us, not condemn us. We have to choose though.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” Jn 3:16-21
If the clay will surrender to potter’s hands, something good will come of it. If the wood will surrender to the carpenter, something good will come of it. If I will surrender to the God of creation and of salvation, something good will come of it. And what of you my reader? What will you choose today? Will you accept Gods forgiveness and submit your self to his plan? Something good will come it.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10
God has paid the price to free us from sin through sacrificing his one and only son Jesus on the cross. The perfect man died in our place, took the punishment we deserve. He rose again from the dead, proving his victory over sin and death and opening the gate way to eternal life with God.
Today will you receive God’s forgiveness and submit yourself to his master plan for your life? If you already have done this, will you share? Will you tell someone else your story of redemption and renewal?
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