Out For A Spin by Phil

For a next step on my woodworking journey, I bought myself a woodworking lathe. (For the non-woodworkers out there, a lathe is sort of like a Potter's Wheel set on it's side where wooden pieces are spun around and carved with various knives and gouges. If you want to get sucked in, look up "woodturning" on YouTube. It is mesmerizing!) Mine is just a small "baby" lathe, but it is a great place to start and learn new skills. One of my woodworking buddies and master woodturners has graciously taken me under his wing to give me some much appreciated instruction. He recommended making some "Christmas Trees" to experiment with different turning techniques. (A few of my first are pictured here.)

I'm having a blast learning new skills while creating pieces of wooden art. When shaping the pieces, the wood is rotated at high speeds, sometimes in the thousands of RPMs. When the piece is spinning that fast the overall shape comes into view and the rough areas become a blur. Occasionally, either a twist in the woodgrain or operator error (more often the latter for me) will cause the cutting tool to catch. When the wood is still spinning it looks like nothing happened, but when you turn the lathe off and examine the piece, you are likely to find an ugly torn section where the tool and wood crossed paths. It's not a big deal, you just turn the lathe back on and go over that section again to remove the tear and reshape the surrounding area, stopping frequently to check your progress. While the lathe is turned off, you may also fine rough spots or imperfections that need some extra work. Without those pauses for examination, the problems may go unnoticed until it is too late to fix.

The same is true of our lives. It is so easy in the modern world to keep spinning at top speed, especially during this holiday season. This is not a new problem, it goes back to the very first Christmas. Because of the Roman census, Bethlehem was overrun with visitors. From lodging to the marketplace, I'm sure the business people were running at full steam and having a banner year. They were so busy, no one paused to notice a young mom and dad hunkered down in a cattle stall on the outskirts of town. They missed the most important visitor to ever arrive in Bethlehem, or any town for that matter - God himself.

Let's not make the same mistake. The miracle of Christmas is Emmanuel, God with us! But we'll never notice Him if we are racing past at 100 miles per hour. Slow down, relax, calm your mind, open your heart, and take a deep breath of God's refreshing spirit. God is always with us, will we choose to take the time to be with Him?

Silent night, Holy night, all is calm...

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Sounds perfect,
Phil and Pam

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