Greetings Dear Reader,
There is a photo of me that I hope never surfaces. It is somewhere in the vast sea of photos
that my mum has from when we took pictures with cameras on film and had to get
them developed somewhere. I was eleven
when it was taken. In this photo, my face is in agony as my dad is removing a
large splinter from the space between my thumb and index finger.
At the time the pain was real and I did not handle it
well. I have done better since. I have had many splinters and learned some
less painful ways of extracting them. As
I said earlier in this series, I am not a carpenter but I do work with wood on
occasion.
If one works with wood one is going to get splinters. One will get wood specs in the eye even when
wearing protective eyewear. There are
injuries that come from carpentry. My Grandfather
once cut his hand with a band saw almost to the wrist. This happened before I was born. The saw went between his index and middle
fingers and he had pins in his hand so he could still use it. He always stressed safety even with the smallest
woodworking project we did together. He
made it clear that the injury was his fault because he did not respect the
tools and the process.
First-century carpenters did not have power tools but there
were still dangers. There was also not
advanced medical care to help when injuries did occur. We do not know if Jesus ever was
injured. We do know that working day in
and day out with raw lumber make the likelihood quite high. The thing we need to keep in focus is that he
was human and subject to our weaknesses.
This carpentry trade makes one of Jesus’ statements so poignant
to me. When he speaks about judging
others, the Carpenter uses an example that is clear and resonates with us all. “Why
do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention
to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me
take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own
eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will
see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
If I frame this well in my own life, it leaves me with no
room to pass judgment on anyone else.
Just to be clear, saying that something is wrong is not judging someone. It is condemning the person that is
wrong. We are all crooked sticks and we
all fall short of the mark. I must not
condemn anyone else. I must realize that
their need for love, grace, kindness, and mercy is as deep as mine. It is the Carpenter who comes to remove our beams,
splinters, and specks so that we can see clearly to show his love to
others. I want to help you with the
speck in your eye if you need assistance.
Just let me get this two-by-four out of mine and I will be right there.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every
writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a
homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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