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Advent in the Woodshop, Part 3
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ADVENT IN THE WOODSHOP - Part three, LOVE Welcome back to the woodshop for another look at the themes of Advent. We've selected our log and smoothed off the rough places. Now it's time to get down to the real work of discovering just what is hiding inside this piece of wood. We'll use a variety of tools, some very aggressive to take off lots of material and others very delicate to create fine details. Along the way there will probably be unforeseen places where a deformity or crack in the wood may cause a chunk to fly off. No worries, we just keep working to smooth out what is left behind. The shape of the piece slowly comes into view, though constantly changing with each pass of the gouge or chisel. When the steel tools have done their job, it's time to sand with increasingly finer grits to polish the surface. When we stop the spinning and examine our progress, we may discover some trouble spots that need more work, or maybe a curve that needs refining to create an even more appealing shape. This part of the process I associate with love, especially God's love for us. This process takes a lot of patience. There are no shortcuts in wood turning and rushing never leads to the best results. The process takes perseverance. When the wood is not behaving, we don't throw up our hands and walk away. We keep working, sometimes going over the same spot many times until the troublesome part is shaved away. There are even times when a piece is so unruly it flies out of the lathe chuck and across the shop. I don't abandon it. I seek it out, put it back on the lathe, recenter it, and begin to work on the damage that was done by it's reckless flight. Aren't you glad God loves us like that? He is exceedingly patient with His stubborn children (hint: that includes all of us!). He never gives up on us, even when we fly off the path. He seeks us out, recenters us, and continues His faithful work of reshaping us into the perfect vessel that only He can imagine. Love takes time. Love takes sacrifice. Love is not just something God feels toward us. Love is who He is. Click Here to Check our Concert Schedule! Check us out on Facebook! - http://www.facebook.com/PhilandPamMorgan |
Phil & Pam Morgan
We're authors and musicians who loves to talk about faith & spirituality, arts & crafts, and music. Subscribe and join over 2,000+ newsletter readers every week!
ADVENT IN THE WOODSHOP - Part four, JOY We've come to the end of our exploration of the themes of Advent - presented in wood! So far in our wood turning journey we've selected the wood, smoothed off the rough edges and shaped it into it's final form. Now it’s time to take our creation off the lathe and put it to use. We may have created a bowl for a yummy salad, a snack platter for holiday entertaining, a vase to hold a bouquet of flowers or a dish to keep rings and jewelry safe at night. Or...
ADVENT IN THE WOODSHOP - Part two, PEACE We continue our look at Advent through eyes of a wood turner. Last time we selected a chunk of wood in hope of a masterpiece hiding inside. Now it's time to chuck it onto the lathe. We start by trying to find the approximate center of the piece. No matter how close we get, the odd shape of the rough wood will cause the lathe to shake a bit as it turns. We ease the roughing gouge slowly toward the spinning wood and it jumps and jerks in our hands as the...
Welcome to December! It snowed here in KC on the first, so that must mean the holiday season is officially here. In this busy time of year, we pray you take time to savor each moment and remember the great gift from God we celebrate with Jesus' birth. This marks the 25th year of our weekly devotions. Phil wrote the first one on December 28, 1999. (We'll include it below.) We've lost count, but over these 25 years, the number of devotions has climbed into the thousands. Our intention was to...