I can only imagine what Jesus' silent conversations with His father were like. As he walked amongst a broken and sick people, he must have silently prayed and pleaded for them. Before he stepped out on the wavering sea to save his disciples in the midst of the storm, he surely prayed for God to help them believe and see how great He was.
It must have been more beautiful and pure than any prayer I could imagine but maybe something along the lines of, "I love them Father, use this miracle to open their eyes to see how great I am and one day to see how wonderful you are." Who knows right? But it is a wonderful thing to think about.
We could argue that Jesus didn't do anything half heartily or halfway. I bet he enjoyed being a carpenter.
I recently worked with a friend of mine, Brian, to make a coffee table for my house. I've never been too picky about furniture or style in my home but for reasons that now seem to slip my mind I could not find a single coffee table in Chinandega that I liked. So, ignorantly I said to myself, I'll make one! I can honestly say that if I knew beforehand the work it would take to do this seemingly simple carpentry job, I would have settled for any number of coffee tables I passed up in the local market. To be honest, I hardly did any of the work because of my lack of experience. Sure, I could hold a board here and there or send it through a machine when I was told explicitly clear instructions. But, I had no clue the hours and dedication it would take to turn dirty damp pine into a clean cut coffee table.
A month and a half after my visit to the local wood shop, the table sits in my living room with a Metallica picture book and a where's Waldo "Hollywood" edition on it. You may be reading this and think nothing of that time frame but guys I seriously thought I was going to be carrying a finished table to my house the very same night that I purchased the wood.
Little did I know there was more than a measuring tape and nails involved. Turning a "damp" piece of pine into a shaped and measured piece of nail ready wood is quite the process (to say the least). For the sake of this conversation, I won't get into the intricate details but there are things called plaining, drying, setting, holding, ing, ing, ing, etc...
And it made me think...
I could almost see Jesus taking a bent rough board and working it down piece by piece into a useable plank and connecting with his father throughout the process and praying for us each by name as he did it. He would think of the process it would take for us to learn how to love him. There would be times He would need to use a saw, sandpaper, and plainer to mold us into something beautiful. Each time he would measure and cut the board it would be that much closer to fitting perfectly into its place on a table or chair. And every completed piece of furniture he made would remind him of His kingdom that was to come after years of molding and shaping. Wow.
You see, the gospel is everywhere, and not by chance. It's in the molding and shaping of wood for a coffee table and in the change of seasons throughout the year. An observant walk at night under the stars will tell you how big and wonderful our God is.
Psalms 19 says "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world"
So now every time I rest my feet or place a Tona on my coffee table I can be reminded of God's commitment to mold me as his loved child. He created me, he knows what it takes to fit me in right where I belong. And you know, this coffee table that seems complete may require some sanding and a new paint finish down the road someday. He's never finished molding us into what we were created to be. Lean into that today.
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