(You’ll find the rest of this devotional series on my author’s page.)
Wood has a special warmth to it. Unlike other artistic mediums like stone or clay, wood has life. While the wood was yet part of a tree, roots absorbed water and nutrients from the soil, sap flowed through the trunk, and leaves made food for the rest of the tree. Working with a living substance is perhaps one of the lures that draws people to invest hours shaping, sanding, and polishing wood. Whereas clay has a uniform consistency, wood offers the challenge of a rippled grain or the occasional knothole where a branch once stretched up to reach the sky.
Nevertheless, a tree must die in order to release its wood to the carpenter. So too Jesus, who was the creator of life, gave up his life so that we might know the beauty of salvation. As it says in John 15:13, “The greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.”
How sad a woodworker is when he sees good wood that lies rotting in a forest. What a waste! To think of the fine furniture or strong shelves that could have been made! And yet, how often people ignore God’s sacrificial gift of love. Have we left Christ lying dead in a tomb and have we forgotten that he rose to give us new life?
Jesus, thank you for laying down your life so that I might live today, tomorrow and forever with you.
