Woodworking with a Lathe

 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. (Hebrews 12:3-7 ESV).

 

I’ve returned to the lathe in my woodworking. I’m turning bowls of various kinds from different types of woods. The picture you see here is just one of the recent projects I’ve completed. The wood is mesquite. It came from a tree that was damaged by ice several years ago on our property. Several large limbs were broken off from the weight of the ice. As I cleaned them up there was plenty of wood left big enough to use for projects and barbeque. We actually had nearly a third of a cord by the time I cut it all to size. This bowl came from one of the larger pieces. You can see the worm holes and defects I left visible for esthetic effect. I decided it would make a great indoor planter for some of the native succulents found in our area. When Mary saw me working on it in the shop, her first remark was, “You sure are making a mess. There’s a lot of sawdust on the floor.”

 

Well, there was. I’ve found that any work with bowl turning requires the removal of a lot of wood, therefore creating a lot of shavings and sawdust. The finished product is wonderful, but the process is messy. Some might even say the process is severe. Some of the tools I use are descriptive in their names: gouges, scrapers, and parting tools are just a few. When I thought about our reading today, I was reminded of the process of creating the bowl.

 

The “discipline” the writer mentions is not punishment for our sin. Jesus has already taken all of that in His death on the cross. Here the word is a reference to our training, or discipleship. As is true in any training, we should expect the process to be severe, often accompanied by hardship or difficulty. Removing all the unwanted material from the wood, leaving only the final product was severe, but the end result was certainly worth it. God does that in our lives as well. As a side not, the wood didn’t have any say in what it would become. That was left to me. So, God is the “artist” in this image also. He knows exactly where to make each cut and scrape to produce the best product of our lives. The process is not without real pain. However, it is always worth it. Don’t deny the pain, but embrace the One who is in charge of the finish!