By Van Yandell
John 21: 17 “He said unto him, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep.”
After teaching industrial arts and working as a carpenter for many years, I suppose I had sawdust flowing through my veins. The wood shop must have been my favorite area and that love carried over into my retirement years.
A wood shop in a garage became my work area in which I continued to build furniture, cabinets and other items of walnut, cherry and maple. A woodland on the property provided trees to cut and haul to an Amish sawmill.
Roy, the sawmill operator was an unusual sort. He worked barefoot and used a band saw. His work was absolute precision. I could not find as much as a thirty-second of an inch variance in thickness and widths.
Normally there was one-thousand or more board feet of lumber in my drying building for my habit and the projects seemed to never find an end, which of course, I would not have wanted to happen.
A high school boy from down the road would come by occasionally (most every day) and keep me company. I still see him from time to time and we reminisce about those days in the wood shop.
One day I was turning bed posts on a wood lathe. The project was a walnut, king-size poster bed. It sits in my bed room even now.
My young friend asked me that day if I could show him how to do the work. My immediate response was “These skills are an accumulation of years of work, study and a lot of trial and error. So it probably wouldn’t be of any great benefit to you.”
He was depressed over my response and went away head down and dragging his feet. Over the time, I had second thoughts. We all had to start somewhere; why not?
A couple of days later he returned. Asking him what he had in mind to build, his response was “I dunno.” Finally the truth came out; he wanted to make a wooden heart for one of his girlfriends. I’m not sure how many he had and I dared not ask!
Thinking he could not get into much trouble with a portable jig-saw, I gave him his first lesson. It was to draw a symmetrical design for the heart. Avoid making the radius of the curve too acute because the blade would not turn that sharp a curve.
Clamping the nine inch square piece of cherry to a work bench, he began. After an extended period of time, he brought it to me for inspection.
With a little touch up, he had a presentable heart. I’m sure it totally impressed his current girlfriend. As the days and weeks passed, he used belt sanders (portable and bench), a band saw, a router and drills. He made his mother a cutting board and a wall shelf.
Skills build on skills. If a woodworker learns simple cabinet construction, he/she can build a night stand. If one can build a night stand, he/she can build a dresser and a chest-of-drawers. If one can turn a rolling pin on a wood lathe, a poster bed is definitely in the future.
New Christians are usually (or should be) introduced to Jesus’ last commandment before He ascended.
Acts 1: 8 “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
The power He was referring to was from the Holy Spirit (Spirit of God). Acts 2: 1-4 tells us of the giving of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. Any true believer-follower of the Lord Jesus has this power.
A Christian should never feel that he/she is going into the world alone to teach others about Jesus and eternal life. God is with us and will give us words and motivation to inform others about His saving power (Matthew 28: 20).
Just as skills build on skills in the wood shop, skills build on skills in our Christian life. Also our enthusiasm grows as well as incentive to share our faith.
In the leading scripture (John 21: 17) Jesus asked Peter “Do you love me?” We love Jesus because He first loved us. With this truth, should we not follow His commandment to “feed my sheep?”
Skills building on skills include feeding lost and hungry sheep. Sheep are not particularly intelligent animals; they become lost rather easily. There are over five-billion people in this world that have not realized eternal salvation is by a faith based belief in Jesus, crucified and resurrected.
This is not to mean those billions have limited intellect, but is to say they have never been told. Telling others is establishing a skill, a motivation and a burden for those without Christ. One does not have to be a carpenter to build; neither does one have to be a preacher or missionary to share their faith.
We may not win our first encounter to Jesus but the courage to win the next will develop and our enthusiasm will grow. A personal testimony, a gift of a Bible, or a simple invitation to a church or a back yard Bible study is a good place to begin. I challenge you! Let your skills build on skills.
Van Yandell is a retired Industrial Arts teacher, an ordained gospel evangelist and commissioned missionary. His email is vmy3451@gmail.com
