a pile of scrap...

...I think it's amazing that God chose the career of a carpenter for His walk on earth, Jesus' trade. A carpenter is an expert on building, creating, and also reconstruction. A carpenter can take a pile of scrapwood and create something that is both useful and beautiful.

My dad is a builder. He began as a teenager and learned how to build a house from top to bottom...everything but plumbing. But he also is a packrat. And every year, at least once, my mom is faced with cleaning out my dad's garage...the haven for all left-overs...from nails and screws to saws that don't work and huge rolls of wire. As I helped my mom this last time, we spent days sorting through what we through of as a bunch of junk. I spent an hour just moving piles of scrapwood outside to the driveway. Although I was ready to chunk it all, my mom knew better. She knew that my dad valued that wood.

You see, out of all of that stuff, my dad has a thing for wood. Sure, I love the smell of wood (esp. sawdust...it reminds me of my dad)...but I don't think that's why my dad loves wood. I think that when my dad looks at a pile of scrapwood, he doesn't see pieces that never made it onto a house...he sees pieces ready to become a part of a project. He sees the potential.

Its so amazing to think of how our Heavenly Dad looks at all of the "scrapwood" of our lives and sees how He's going to make it into something both useful and beautiful!