Sophia Bank's Blog: Carpenter—The Measured Wood Builds My Home and Constructs the Dimensions of My Immeasurable Life

Wood

In the ancient past, water ran over Earth’s lands in violent, uncontrolled blankets, with no clear paths.

Only the Spirit of Life moved upon the face of the waters.

Around 450 million years ago, vascular plants formed. Soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the xylem and phloem brought forth rivers and muds, until eventually soils were molded. With the gathering of dusts, the forests and farmlands were fashioned. Thereafter, life forms, grass, and seed populated the lands until humanity came into existence.

In the jungles and the wood, life was created and brought forth others of its kind. Animation flourished and abounded.

Wood is Alive

Wood is alive; it never truly dies.

Cut, thrashed, or pulverized, in the quintessence of its germ, wood lives and moves.

Reaching toward Heaven the tree contests gravity, seeking to attain true plumb. In familiarity of the determination and ambition of its roots, the tree’s wood seeks the carpenter’s skill and proficiency to be crafted precisely throughout by plumb and level. Fashioned by the carpenter’s square and noble tools, the wood is transformed into a fine creation. In the transformation between hewn and build, the wood transforms the craftsman into an artisan of transcendent dimensions.

The quality of the wood is felt in the touch. By its firmness and texture, equal to its shade, the wood remembers its fitted length and width. Like a stored treasure, the wood waits upon the carpenter to reveal and express its true meaning. Long before the vascular plants formed, when the seed floated in the deep ocean profundity envisaging the sapling and the bark, the tree cried out for the carpenter’s touch, yearning to be crafted by the profound wisdom of Divinity.

Fitted and molded to an excellence only a craftsman can envision and create, each part of the wood connects to the carpenter’s heart, a guided story expressed from ancient time. In the hands of the carpenter, the wood’s crafted to precise dimensions. By mortise and tenon, the ancient joints marvel in their simplicity, hewn and fashioned to the full degree of their strength. The open or through mortise accepts the peg and dowel, rightly hardened by the biscuit to fuse the materials into a stronger union. The aesthetic magnificence of the woodcraft and joinery reveals the interlocking arterial bond disguised in the wood’s splendor. Observed by the dovetail, the artisan’s creative ingenuity breathes through the wood an excellent handiwork.

The wish of the tree is to feel the hand of the carpenter and be formed to a pronounced creation.

Tree of Life

It is no wonder that the Almighty is called the Word, and wrote a book for the living. The paper composing the book is alive, further carrying the good news of the message to all the living and breathing on earth.

In life, the Good News revealed to the blind the true nature of reality.

And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.(Mark 8: 24)

Upon death, the body of the Savior resided in a garden for three days while his spirit was hurt and punished in hades. (Mark 15: 43-47) Three days were extended across eternity’s span; eternity was compressed into three days. Thus, payment for sin was provisioned.

The soil of the garden, blessed by the treasured lifeblood, nourishes the wood. At the center of the plot sits the Tree of Life.

In the midst of the troubles of this world, confronted with the death, sickness, and turmoil of a heartless existence, I cling to the life of the Tree in the midst of the garden.

In its crust and hardened skin, I am protected. In its roots and foliage, I am healed. By eating its fruit, I find sustenance and perfection.

The food of the Tree of Life bestows to me the gift of eternal life.