December 7 – “Great shape”

I went with Kel to what they called a Clergy Thinkposium today.  It was at a little church that has only about five members left.  The interim pastor is a really young guy who came to Galveston to do some relief work and stuck around to keep helping out.  The idea of the meeting is to get pastors together to brainstorm ideas for meeting the needs of the homeless on Galveston.  There were eight of us there.  Two were from the really big Methodist church in town.   Kel represented First Baptist.  I was there for Seaside.  The lady pastor of the Jesus Generation church (or something like that) was there.  And one guy had a really heavy English accent and said he was from the Church of something or other that sounded very strange.  Turns out it was.  At one point in the meeting he made the comment that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all serve the same God.  You could have heard a pin drop after that one.  Everybody was uncomfortable anyway, since none of us really know each other.  The Jesus Generation lady kind of muttered under her breath, "Not really."  He tried to bait her by asking, "why not?" but a guy on the other side of the table quickly stepped in and said, "Now that's a discussion for another day."  I'm not sure if we got anything accomplished, but we're meeting again next month.   I did some carving on my annual Christmas gift for Chris.  She said I am not to buy her anything, so I guess I have to make stuff, or clean stuff, or something.  Anyway, it's not turning out to be what I expected it to be.  I always told the boys through the years when they asked me what I was carving that I didn't know yet.  I had to carve away all the stuff that didn't belong so I could see what was underneath.  Now, I didn't make that up, but it sure is true.  I read it somewhere about some great sculptor – Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci or somebody like that.  Except he said it about marble.  I'm glad I'm not carving marble.  By hand.  This piece of wood is hard enough as it is.  I am thankful to the Dremel company for their power tool carver.  Now if I can just find the right attachment to do what I need it to do I'll be in great shape.  Well, great shape for carving.  "Great shape" is another story.   Hebrews 4:13 says, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."   Father, give me little clue from your "Creation Handbook" on this carving.  I want it to be special.  Amen.