Only Fitting...

It's amazing how God can take something common and use it to illustrate a point.  When I think about the earthly occupation of Jesus, working in His "step-father's" carpentry shop, we can see that not only is God all wise, He knows how to communicate to us. 

There is a neat little book called "The Hidden Years at Nazareth" by G. Campbell Morgan which is free on Google Play books.  The book makes an attempt to discuss what Jesus did for those 18 or so years before he began His ministry.  The book presupposes that Jesus started working at 12 which was the age of accountability in Jewish culture.  While it is not biblical i.e. does not include scripture because scripture is basically silent about the life of Christ except for his birth, his encounter with the teachers at 12 in the temple and the inception of His ministry at 30, it is quite an interesting read.

The work of a carpenter is quite interesting.  They take wood and smooth out knots in it.  One reason that knots develop in wood is when branches die or fall off.  These knots have to be sanded down before the wood can be used.    Carpenters smooth rough edges down to create opportunities for the wood to be bonded to other pieces of wood.  Most of all, they take wood and give it form and use.  Wood is a raw material that has no use until it is given one.  Carpenters know what type of wood can be used for what purposes and they know the strength of each type of wood as well.

Now, let us turn our attention to Jesus.  It is fitting that He came to earth as a carpenter.  It is symbolic of the work that He would do in the lives of those that accept Him!  He has smoothed out knots from losses in the lives of believers and made it look as if there had been no loss at all.  He has taken those of us that were rough around the edges and sanded those edges down so that we can become part of a larger fellowship, the Body of Christ.  I thank God that most of all, Jesus took the raw material that was my life before I met Him and gave it form and made it useful!  Psalm 127 says "Except the Lord build the house, the workers labor in vain."  Thank you Jesus for giving me a purpose and giving me a reason to exist!  I am not the only one that has this testimony, there are millions that ought to be grateful to the Supreme Builder of the universe!

God knows how to communicate better than anyone in the universe and we should always be looking for messages from Him.  His message today is that the carpenter's Son is still in business long after Joseph, the one that taught Jesus carpentry, has passed on.  He's still building, He's still creating and He's still taking formless, useless raw materials and making them into something that would bring Him glory!  Thank you Jesus.  may God's richest blessings be upon you!