20 Sharp Knife in a Loving Hand
SHARP KNIFE IN A LOVING HAND
When we used to go camping with my parents, my elderly father—now with the Lord—was a wonder to watch. While others busied themselves with tents and stoves, ice chests and lanterns, Daddy would slip quietly into the surrounding forest and begin gathering chunks of wood.
He would come back to the campsite with an armload—trunks of gnarled redwood, juniper, perhaps some pine that had had time to harden in the weather. Piling this trove near a comfortable rock, he would sit down, pull out his knives, and begin whittling away the crusty bark and dead, dry twigs, scraping off the dirt, moss, and any soft or decayed wood.
Sometimes, people who passed our campsite wondered why this little old man was so captivated by pieces of dirty, gray wood. Yet he worked on with deliberation, obviously with something very special in mind.
I often wondered at Daddy’s work myself. Some of the pieces he selected looked utterly unredeemable. The weather had blasted and twisted them. Insects had gnawed and ravished them.
But Daddy worked on and on … and before you knew it, there was a mound of bark, dirt, and twigs piled at his feet. And in his grip, clean and shiny from the oils in his hands, and smooth from the cut of his knife, he would have shaped a lovely carving. It always amazed me to see the beautiful grain in the heart of that wood after the bark and decayed wood had been chipped away. Often, those lovely pieces would then be shaped into lamps, tables, chests, or stools.
Once while watching Daddy at his work, I did some work of my own—a charcoal sketch of him toiling away with his knife, cutting into a piece of wood. I entitled the rendering, “My Father’s Creation.”
Our heavenly Father is hard at work, too, creating something beautiful in the lives of His children as He shapes us with the knife of His Word. The Holy Spirit peels away the crusty, dead layers of our old nature. He cuts out the decayed areas of habitual sin and lops off the dead or dying branches that don’t produce fruit. Slicing away at disease and damaged layers, His work reveals a changed heart, beautifully transformed by His sharp Word and His skilled hands.
There isn’t one of us who doesn’t feel the encrusted weight of our old nature. We long to have stubborn sins stripped away, and the worthless preoccupations and dead, earthbound things sloughed off.
God in His Word can do that. Yes, the cut of the knife will be sharp, often painful. In our foolishness and fear we may even want to cling to some of those dead, fruitless branches. We may resist the suffering that He allows into our lives, wondering if He has forgotten about us. But God works on with deliberation, obviously with something very special in mind. Christ Jesus in you.
A Step Closer
His powerful Word is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, cutting through everything, whether doubt or defense, laying us open to listen and obey. Nothing and no one is impervious to God’s Word. We can’t get away from it—no matter what.
HEBREWS 4:12–13, THE MESSAGE
Are you more like Jesus this year than five years ago? One year ago? Last month? Make sure you have a regular reading plan to be in the Bible every day—prayerfully, carefully— allowing the Holy Spirit to gradually carve and shape you to resemble the King of kings.