A Wooden Heart

"Lord, help me learn things that lead me closer to a heart like yours."  I had asked this back in August 2010 when I was in trade school. I went there thinking that I knew what I wanted to learn....and as always I was wrong.  You see, I thought that I wanted to be a welder, but i did not have the steadiness needed.  Then I tried Heavy Equipment Operator yet i never made it into the course.  So I then decided to throw my hands in the air and ask that simple request, "Lead me closer to a heart like yours." His answer was to make me a carpenter.

At first I was a little overwhelmed. I mean Christ himself was a carpenter for thirty years.  Honor filled my soul, but I still did not understand.  What about carpentry had to do with the spiritual aspect of who Christ is. Now almost five years later I am slowly beginning to understand.

You see it has two reasons. First is Creation.  When I hand build something I devote my time and effort to give existence to a table, chair, etc.  With this also comes my sweat and blood.  But at the end of it all, in front of me is the finished project.  Christ is the same way with us.  He draws up the plans. Just how I pick the wood, stain, and shape of the table. He picks the body frame, color, and the very core of who we are.  When he came down to earth he showed us not only was he willing to sweat and bleed; but proved that he would die to make us, his creations, complete. Also when I make something, that creation has the identity of being created by Sheridan Hall.  With us and Christ it is, as my favorite Thai saying goes, "Same, Same. But different."  This is because, unlike the table, we have the ability to identify ourselves as created by Christ.  As well as Christ himself seeing us as Created by him. WE.ARE.HIS.  Then he sends us out to live our lives and sadly, things change.

But then we have the chance of being "New Creations."  In carpentry we call this Refurbishment.  (this is the second reason.)  In refurbishing, say a chair, I have to sand out the scratches, scuffs, and bad paint.  Sometimes i even have to rebuild a leg.  I do this to make the chair look better.  But also so that no one Identifies that chair by the scratches, chips, or broken leg.  Christ does the same thing with our hearts.  He fills the holes and smooths out the scratches that sin and our choices have left.  Even goes as far as fixing our broken hearts.  He does all this because he loves us.  Now when I am done with refurbishing the chair and people ask, "What happened to that beat up and broken chair?" I get to smile and say "You are sitting in it." So when Christ fixes us up, we are no longer identified as broken and sinful.  We are able to be identified as new and improved creations of Christ.

Now to end this post I would like to say one thing.  God has fixed my wooden heart by smoothing it to completion and staining it with his protective and sealing blood.