A Pepper Grinder Post

Man the Creator?

I know some good woodworkers.  I have a gorgeous wooden pen made by a former co-worker.  I work with someone now who can make beautiful bowls, pepper grinders, and chess sets out of exotic wood.  I used to go to church with someone who can make furniture, like cabinets with glass doors, of such fine quality that it looks, to me at least, like something that would be made by an expert craftsman.

I don’t for a minute put myself in the category of people like this.  Rather, I am someone who likes to build stuff with wood. I tend to go for practical things like shelves, and my results, while usually not bad looking, would never be mistaken for something professionally done.

Right now I’m working on an odd piece of furniture that looks like a cross between a shelf and a desk but that fits well with what my wife and I want for a certain spot in our room.  For me, this is a pretty aesthetically done piece, with almost all the screws positioned so you don’t see them.  The larger pieces are made from this kind of pine panel where they take smaller pieces and join them together to make a larger flat surface which is already nice and smooth when you buy it.

I didn’t have to cut down a tree, or saw a tree into pieces, or plane and sand those pieces until they were smooth.  All that was done for me.  I bought the pieces as close to the size I needed as I could and then sawed them to size with a table saw and a circular saw that I did not build.  I drilled the holes for the screws with an electric drill.  I screwed the screws in by hand, but even then, I was relying on a screwdriver and screws that I could not possibly have made for myself.

Even though I was building something very simple, I was relying on a great deal of technology and other peoples’ know-how and hard work.

And what of my results?  If everything turns out as expected, it will sit there in a corner of our room, and we’ll be able to put things on it, without it collapsing.  I can’t help comparing this to God’s creation.

I built my piece using wood that others had prepared and tools that others had built. God created the entire world out of nothing.  If my piece of furniture gets a nick or a scratch, it will not be able to heal itself.  The thing I am building will not move or think or make little pieces of furniture.  It will just sit there.

The most impressive things that I or any human have ever built, seem like childish attempts at creation compared to the simplest bacteria or weed.  And yet, we still have the desire to go on creating and building things.  I believe this is because we are created in the image of God.  We can’t do anything like what he can do, but we still have the desire to keep on trying.

- Pepper
Posted 2013-10-30