My Saw In Two! Part Two
My Saw in Two!
I took two trips a few years ago to the beautiful mountains of North Carolina! Spent our time with our family up in a hand-hewn, square-cut log cabin with dovetailed corners. Each day was filled with wonderful views and hot, sunny days of adventure. The type one can dream about or watch on TV movies. Beautiful trees, leaves, country roads, birds chirping and sunshine down until 9:30 p.m.! It was heavenly, to say the least! Each day brought outings and great adventures. One day, we crossed three small log bridges-one person at a time. We walked trails covered with trees and where streaks of sunshine broke through. Truly magical!
One day, my son-in-law and I visited some antique stores while the wives were home. Not a good thing! I eyed a two-man saw with a landscape scene beautifully painted on it. I convinced myself I needed it and wanted it. I purchased it but now had two problems: How to ship it back to Puerto Rico and how to tell my wife; both difficult moves. My son-in-law had my back in terms of getting it shipped. We got some boxes, bought tape, and spent 45 minutes pouring sweat from our foreheads at the post office parking. It wasn’t easy to package a flimsy 66” long saw; but we did it! Inside the post office, we were called to the counter. The agent didn’t know how to measure it. Instead of measuring the length, the width, and the height-a mere 2,” he measured the length twice! We were appalled! We told him that was not the way to do it! He insisted it was! Now, we had a bigger problem (literally)! This being near a 4th of July weekend, many businesses were closed. We finally found a chainsaw carving locale and asked if someone could ruin my beautiful saw by cutting it down with a grinder. One guy agreed. When he saw the artwork, he asked us, “Are you guys really sure you want to do this?” Tearfully and with shaking knees, I said, “Yes.” We held a moment of silence…
We repackaged it and headed to the P.O. the agent was surprised at how small we were able to get it-shmuck! Just as he was about to call us, another teller called us & he measured it correctly! All that for nothing. It was on its way, and now I only had to tell my wife. The sweat would pour down again. “Honey, Baby, Sweetie, Darling…What a beautiful day…” I lived to tell about it, though it took a while to recover from the wounds (kidding). Good thing she didn’t have the saw on hand-you’d never know!
Back home, I had to find someone to seamlessly weld it back & then I had to paint it to blend both parts. I didn’t mind because I knew the saw had a story and history of its own and now it had mine to go with it! That’s life. We all have stories, though I seem to have tons of them.
Some two thousand years ago, Jesus had a story to tell, a mission to fulfill, and a purpose for both. Upon His death, the veil of the temple was torn in two. Decades ago, I read it would require 2-3 oxen on each end, each pulling in their direction in order to tear the veil apart. Yet, it was divinely torn-not from the bottom the way oxen or men could do it, but from the top signifying it was an act of God. So, why was the veil important? In a nutshell, it separated us from a holy God. It required burnt offering and sacrifices to reach Him. It kept us from approaching Him and saying, “What’s up, God?” The tearing means we now have access to Him anytime and anywhere. He took our sins and He sacrificed His life for us so we wouldn’t have to. He took our place at the altar. We can talk to Him and tell Him whatever is on our hearts.
Years later, history tells us that one or two of His disciples were sawed in half. At the coming resurrection, their bodies will become ‘ONE’ again- as will the bodies of all that have died for Christ’s cause, whether they’re on/In the ground, cremated, in the sea, or anywhere else! If there’s hope for an old, artful saw, there’s definitely plenty of hope for you!
Bright, Sunny Days in NC
Cleaning House
From the time our kids were 6 and 8 years old up to 11 and 13, they had some strange ways of cleaning their rooms. The two weird ones were the two oldest ones, Milky and Gam. Milky, the ever-creative one, always had an ‘interpretive’ way of what cleaning meant. The first time we encountered her ‘non-kosher’ ways was when she was about 5-6 years old. There were probably 9-13 toys on the floor with pants, blouses, and other goodies strewn about. l gave them all 15 minutes to clean up. Upon returning, the mess had multiplied about 40 times over! I was upset! I couldn’t believe it! I called my wife over to see what this room now looked like! I don’t think the floor tiles were visible! She was full ripe for a spanking; but wait!! She had a plan! There was a full and logical explanation for this chaos! “In order for me to clean, I first have to empty every chest drawer and every dresser drawer, and I have to dump all the toys on the floor. This way, I get to reorganize everything and return them to where they belong,” she explained. She was spared and given another hour to demonstrate her skills. She did it although the thought of getting that spanking made her rush it through. And so, the expected unexpected surprises made their way into our home.
Our son had his own creativity as well! His room had bunk beds with the bottom bed empty. His first stunt was to pull a bedsheet over the bottom bed covering the side too. I walked in, open some drawers and found all up to par. As I reviewed the room, I noticed he didn’t move from in front of his bed…. When I moved him and lifted the sheet, wow! everything was on that bed!! He hadn’t cleaned at all. Another time, everything again looked cleaned and legit, but upon further inspection, just like on TV, he wouldn’t move his outstretched arm from leaning on the closet. I asked him to move and when I opened the door, everything poured right on down to the floor! I learned that whether toys were swept under the bed, covered with clothing, hidden under the sheets, or whether the youngest child was missing because Milky made her a “Why didn’t I think of that before?” bed by hiding her in a towel-lined chest drawer, and pulled her out so I could see her ingenuity, that our kids could come up with all sorts of things to cover up their responsibilities, or lack thereof.
One day, according to Scripture, Jesus faced a similar situation: The holy temple courts were filled with corrupt leaders and vendors. People found shortcuts for their responsibilities. If someone forgot to drop by Lamb-mart to pick up a perfect lamb for their family sacrifice, they could get one of those ‘dent’ models at the temple; except for a few blemishes, it was just as good, they reasoned. The bible shares that in past times before Jesus’ days, the people viewed serving God as a weariness (Malachi 1:13).
Armed with a whip, Jesus, with righteous anger, overthrew the vendors for polluting His Father’s house (John 2:13-17). We can look at that in disbelief and marvel at how some people could do such a thing. Yet, we do the same. We’re good at disguising our cleaning. We’ll sweep our junk, our toys, our anger, our jealousies under our beds or in the closets of our minds. We know we anger our Father, but we figure He’ll forgive us. At best, we hope He doesn’t look in our secret chambers to discover what’s in there. Here’s a secret: If we could go back in time to before we were born, or before time even existed, we’d find that God already knew what things we will try to get away with. We can’t hide anything from Him. It’s like suspecting our son may have eaten 8 of the 12 Oreos we left in a pack and so we figure we can ask him. He’ll deny it with the most serious and somber face available. But then he smiles slightly as if to say, “I’m so good, I’ve got this” and then you notice the black teeth and tongue… All we wanted was for him to come clean. That’s what God wants. He doesn’t want or need your Oreos but He does want your life. He’ll clean it out much better than we ever could. He has a plan. He has a drawer for every toy and garment; not for hiding your kids. He won’t sweep anger or envy under the bed; He’ll remove them completely. You’ll feel tons better knowing you’ll have the seal of a clean house inspection.
God Bless