February 11 – “A Tiny Table”

 

 

It's cold outside.  Especially for Gilligan's Island.  It was 41 degrees with a wind chill of 32 when I woke up.  After my quiet time and a leisure reading of the newspaper it's now 40 degrees with a wild chill of 30.  That wouldn't be so bad, but we're supposed to go up north into Texas to see Jachin play a football game at nine o'clock.  Nothing like standing around in the freezing wind watching a football game.  That's yet another reason why baseball is superior … it's a summer sport. 

 

Last night I tried my hand at another of the projects in the garage.  This one was a little toy table we salvaged from Mom's house after Hurricane Ike.  It was actually part of a set along with two little chairs.  The chairs were fine.  The table legs broke off and it crashed to the ground.  Well, however much of a crash there can be when the object is about six inches tall.  The table was made by carving a peg end into some branches off of a tree and inserting them into drilled holes in a square piece of wood.  There was glue involved and some tiny finishing nails.  The problem came because the peg ends broke off, leaving the holes clogged with a wood and glue mixture that was nearly impossible to clean out.  The tiny nails blocked the drill I used, so I ended up having to scrape it out with a screwdriver and my carving knife.  Then I had to carve out another peg and figure out which holes matched up.  It was way more of an ordeal than I had hoped.  Chris asked at one point if it was turning into more than I had bargained for.  My first thought was, "The fact that I'm doing this at all is more than I bargained for.  I probably would have thrown it away along with the rest of the stuff.  But my lovely wife wanted to keep it, so here we are."  Nope.  Didn't say any of that.  Just mumbled something like, "Yep.  Sure is." 

 

But as I carved I noticed a little strip of paper glued to the bottom of the table.  It was a note from Mom that explained the table's origins.  It read, "Made by Judge W.N. Stowe for his children & given to me in early 40's.  He was in his 80's then.  He & his wife lived at 1124 37^th & we lived at 3617 Avenue L."  Well, that changes things somewhat, don't you think?  Now it's no longer a random hunk of tree branches glued together to resemble a little table.  No.  Now it's a piece of history, made by a guy who was born around the time of the Civil War.  A guy who lived through the 1900 Storm.  A guy who sat in judgment over cases in Galveston.  Who was this mystery judge?  I googled him and found out that there is some kind of information on him in the Rosenberg Library rare documents room.  Not much else, though.  Maybe one day I'll trudge up there and just see if he made a name for himself in something other than children's furniture.  And maybe the glue will hold on that ornery little table.

 

Isaiah 60:19-20 says, "The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.  Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end."

 

Father, thank you for Dads who care enough about their children to carve out little pieces of history just for them.  Amen.