Intricate Work
The well was one with the best tasting water for miles around. The cool water made it a good refrigerator where they stored their food in buckets. Just having all the warm bodies of the cows and horses in the barn, made it nice and warm in the winter. In training horses, Dad was expert. He knew just how to get the horses to do exactly what he wanted them to do. They were wonderful loggers, bringing out the huge trees from the forest just the way Dad wanted. God is realistic in his creations and made these strong beasts of burden to do strenuous labor for his master. The horse is very intelligent and if he is treated kindly he will live a long life and be a wonderful friend. It will be marvelous to see God’s creations in heaven when he comes to take his faithful home.
Horse riding was a common enjoyment of the little mechanic. He learned what the right tools were to be used to be successful in this delightful time. The learning process can often cause some hard bumps and bruises, but he lived through it all. Even jumping the fence and flying from the horse did not stop him from this excitement. We are so thankful the Lord will kindly do the mechanics on healing the injured body with His tender tools of love and patience, so it can continue the learning lessons of life.
Certain tools need to be used for specific problems and be efficiently reassembled to make the machine run properly again. So if we think we have a better way of doing something we can try making our own invention. But the fact that things are made to run a certain way does not allow for a strange part to take the place of what is required and made to fit the job or purpose of the part to run something smoothly.
This little mechanic decided he wanted to have a boat to go out on the water of the slough that was there on the farm. This was a favorite place for the children to play by the water and he brought one of his Dad’s wooden horse troughs and filled the cracks with mud. Then he called his sister to come have a ride with him on the water. They put the trough in the water and climbed in. Oh, no, before they knew it down they went.
For sure he learned he had done it the wrong way. Noah put pitch on the ark he made but the mechanic didn’t follow Noah’s example to the T and did it a little different, so it didn’t work. Sometimes we think we can do things a little different than the way God says to do them in the Bible and very soon we have a guilty conscience and realize too late that we did not follow the instructions of Jesus so He can’t help us as much as He would like to.
An attraction that delighted the children was the big haystack. Somehow they would climb to the top and slide or tumble down. It can’t end up that great when little sister lands in the pigpen right on top of a squealing pig.
The little mechanic was about half the size of one of his classmates that he went to school with. They sat together in class and drew pictures and made clay figures and wrote their letters and ran at playtime. Then after school they walked home down the same road. This was the one room schoolhouse where all the grades were together with one teacher to brave through it all. If the students were orderly and obedient then the teacher could last the year. Other times the boys would get so out of hand the teacher would give up and leave. But Mr. Mechanic learned to read and write and do arithmetic.
This would help prepare him for being a real mechanic, whether literally fixing motors or fixing broken lives, which have very similar applications in their fine details and in having patience to make a proper job of the situation.
It was a pleasure to this little boy to go to school and get acquainted with new ideas to think about as well as the challenge of getting along with big rough boys and girls. Even meeting the unpleasant thing of a broken tooth when his little sister tossed her lunch box at him. It does change the appearance of a person when part of the tooth is missing, but the character is what counts. How do you meet this? What tool is to be used to fix this situation? Some things are never fixed and still are used to some good. Some items are just tossed out instead of spending time and money on repairs and tools.
The mechanics of life are fixing the wounds of words and actions and using the right tools to bring about the perfected corrections, which must take place on the road to the kingdom of God. This is something we do not want to miss out on, for it would be a tragedy to have the gates of heaven closed to our entrance. There certainly is nothing in this world to compare with the beauty and glory of eternal life with our Redeemer.
With no church to attend in the tiny town a few miles away, which was only a tiny store and a grain elevator and a very few houses, the family had their church by listening to the radio. The Lutheran Hour sent them the lessons to learn from the Bible. This way they learned the stories from the Bible and took it to heart that they needed to obey God.
Jesus says; “If ye love me keep my commandments.” John 14:15
There were plenty of others around who went to different churches and did not believe that God meant what he said about obeying Him and that there really is a law to observe and reverence. God’s law is a transcript of His character which is absolutely perfect and eternal. It always was and always will be without end.
Of course God could bind the hearts of this family together in Christian love as long as they obeyed the Lord in all the light that He shed on their pathway of life. The mistakes are to be fixed and made right so the mind and body can become perfected in Christ. God would have all His machinery running smoothly. But it is we who are causing the breakdowns and many unfixable bodies because we to not put the right fuel in it or we mix good with the bad which can cause a lot of problems. This can be both mental and physical fuel, for the food we feed the mind will affect very strongly the way the body functions. As well, what food we put in the stomach very much determines the condition of the mind. God calls the body His temple where He wants to dwell, so we want to make it the very best environment we possibly can for the precious Holy Spirit to be present always so He does not go away.
The long winter months gave more time in the evening for study and relaxation. But there was still the wood to bring in and the grain to clean and sort for their breakfast and the school children kept up with their schoolwork. When the moon was bright and the snow was hard the children would lay on their sled and push themselves over the fields in the glow and peace of the night.
One of the children’s uncles lived not so far away and he had a blacksmith shop. This was an interesting place where he made the horseshoes and fixed the axels for the wagons and the parts for the tractors. His hammers let you know he was hard at work. The sounds from his shop would make you think of his strong muscles swinging the hammer so much. Sometimes the Lord lets the hammers come down on our head or hand to wake us up from our slumber or sleep of spiritual death. I like to watch the work of the blacksmith, he is very accurate and knows just where the hammer has to hit to get the right shape and effect he wants. When the hammers of life come down on our head, be sure to ask the Lord what is to be learned from these trials so they can produce the right shape and corrections they are meant for. Now the little mechanic watched with great interest and understood the need for intricate accuracy in this work, just as God expects strict compliance to His treasured Words, without deviation or human thoughts and ideas.
“God desires that His workers in every line shall look to Him as the Giver of all they possess. All right inventions and improvements have their source in Him who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. The skillful touch of the physician's hand, his power over nerve and muscle, his knowledge of the delicate organism of the body, is the wisdom of divine power, to be used in behalf of the suffering. The skill with which the carpenter uses the hammer, the strength with which the blacksmith makes the anvil ring, comes from God. He has entrusted men with talents, and He expects them to look to Him for counsel. Whatever we do, in whatever department of the work we are placed, He desires to control our minds that we may do perfect work.”
COL 349
Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door "How many anvils have you had," said I, And so, I thought, the anvil of God's Word, John Clifford
The Anvil Of God's Word
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
When looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers worn with beating years of time.
"To wear and batter these hammers so?"
"Just one," said he; then with a twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
For ages, skeptics blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed - the hammers gone.