play-doh and the apostle Paul
Yesterday afternoon the 5-year-old came up to me with one of those statements, typical at her age, that is really a question.
"You know, I really feel like playing Play-Doh..."
Turned out she wanted to do an activity she had seen in a recent issue of The Little Lutheran wherein participants create animals out of Play-Doh and others at the table guess which animal they have created. Thinking this would be a fine way to spend the last half-hour before it was time for her dance lessons, I obliged, and we got to work. While kiddo created such not-quite-fair-to-the-guesser creations as a "Jaguar Snake," I found myself much more tickled than I thought I would be by the opportunity to craft my own little creations. An elephant was my particular "triumph":
Clearly, I'm not exactly Michelangelo, but my little elephant (and the mouse that came before her... guess I was on a theme) filled me with a sense of accomplishment I was not expecting. I was led to think of those words from the apostle Paul about the virtues of working with one's hands:
"...aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you..."
--1 Thessalonians 5:23
Paul himself worked as a tentmaker; Jesus was employed as a carpenter. The examples we have been given indicate that craft might well be part of God's plan for our fulfillment on this earth. We need to feel accomplishment; we need to be productive in some way.
"Craft" needn't mean production of a table or completion of a sculpture. I sincerely doubt my calling has anything to do with clay. We all, however, have the capacity to "produce," whether we are putting our energy into writing or child-rearing, gardening or cooking, sewing or praying. Conscious application of our own individual skills and gifts in ways that put them to good use helps us serve God--and produces the sense of self-fulfillment God would wish for us.
I suspect we would all do well to spend time contemplating how we best "work with [our] hands"... and act accordingly. So doing has the potential to open new doors in our relationship with God and our sense of the unique creation God has made in each of us.
"You know, I really feel like playing Play-Doh..."
Turned out she wanted to do an activity she had seen in a recent issue of The Little Lutheran wherein participants create animals out of Play-Doh and others at the table guess which animal they have created. Thinking this would be a fine way to spend the last half-hour before it was time for her dance lessons, I obliged, and we got to work. While kiddo created such not-quite-fair-to-the-guesser creations as a "Jaguar Snake," I found myself much more tickled than I thought I would be by the opportunity to craft my own little creations. An elephant was my particular "triumph":
Clearly, I'm not exactly Michelangelo, but my little elephant (and the mouse that came before her... guess I was on a theme) filled me with a sense of accomplishment I was not expecting. I was led to think of those words from the apostle Paul about the virtues of working with one's hands:
"...aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we directed you..."
--1 Thessalonians 5:23
Paul himself worked as a tentmaker; Jesus was employed as a carpenter. The examples we have been given indicate that craft might well be part of God's plan for our fulfillment on this earth. We need to feel accomplishment; we need to be productive in some way.
"Craft" needn't mean production of a table or completion of a sculpture. I sincerely doubt my calling has anything to do with clay. We all, however, have the capacity to "produce," whether we are putting our energy into writing or child-rearing, gardening or cooking, sewing or praying. Conscious application of our own individual skills and gifts in ways that put them to good use helps us serve God--and produces the sense of self-fulfillment God would wish for us.
I suspect we would all do well to spend time contemplating how we best "work with [our] hands"... and act accordingly. So doing has the potential to open new doors in our relationship with God and our sense of the unique creation God has made in each of us.
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