The bowl

Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. 2 Tim 2:20

Not perfect but who is?



Most of the students will remember "the bowl." It sits on my shelf and I have used it for more then one illustration in class. It is made from a chunk of cast away wood that I found on the side of the road. It was mossy, dirty, and looked like it might be good for burning. I by-passed it three times before I stopped and picked it up.

I decided I would see what I could do with it. You see, I am an amateur wood turner. I loaded this sixty pound chunk into my car and brought it home. There I used a variety of tools to cut away the dirt and moss. I also sort of rounded it into a turning blank. After I mounted it to the lathe, I issued a short prayer and turned the machine on. Now being an amateur, I don't have the proper machine to turn something that size. But I am not all that smart.

As I turned on the lathe, it jumped and hopped all over. Wow! that was impressive! So I loaded up the lathe stand with all the free weights and sandbags I could. Then I turned it on again. Still shaky but turn-able. I put chisel to wood and watched the shavings fly.

Lots of shaving and dust later I realized many things. God talks to me while I am working with wood. As I cut away the dirt, bark and moss I heard the Father say to pay attention. Just as I was removing the old, dirty outside so He removed the old man from me. Just as I was exposing the beauty of the color and character of the block of wood, so He revealed that in me. The block lost much of its original shape, weight, and moisture. (more on that last one later) But the original nature of the wood remained.

Cell phone added for size comparision

So it is with us. God can shape us and remove from us those things that are unfit but He leaves the person we are. Although like the “chunk” I started with, it is no longer recognizable. As I turned the chunk, defects in the wood limited how much I could cut in certain areas. But great beauty was revealed as the old layers were taken off. These areas of beauty in the wood were the result of some trauma the tree had gone through. Wind, storms, bugs and even the minerals in the soil had each left their mark on the tree.

At one point I stepped back an looked at the shop. I noticed something interesting. There was a stripe of water on the ceiling, the wall behind the lathe and on me. The block was green so it was losing water as I turned. God impressed on me that the water from the chunk was like the tears that I had shed while He worked on me. And notice, He said, “some of those tears landed on Me” Wow what an awesome God!

Cut, sanded, polished and ready; the bowl now sets where I can be reminded of what He could see in me when I was a dirty, mossy, cast away chunk.

On the shelf