Craft.
Each day a bench. (Sunday Reflection)
I’ve been thinking about craft lately.
I like to watch craftspeople at work — whether they are building something, creating a work of art, or something else. I used to watch my father repair cars. Craft.
It’s that quiet season where one longs for rhythm, for work done slowly and well. There’s something about the steady repetition of a handmade life that calls. Not the pursuit of perfection, but of presence. Of care.
That’s how the devotional life feels to me.
Like woodworking, like building something honest and whole.
The oak drinks in sunlight, wind, and rain. Year by year, slow rings form. Strength builds. The bench is shaped from its body. Measured, cut, joined. Even sanding is a prayer.
The craftsperson used to finish even the underside of the drawer. The unseen part matters.
This is a way to live: Not aiming at perfection, but devotion.
Care. Presence. Craft.
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“Drawers fitted, joints aligned, grain matched with care.
No part unseen. The underside is finished too.”
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The craftsperson never says, this is my last piece.
Each work matters, and still — always another.
Do the work today. And then tomorrow, again.
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“The craftsperson does not speak.
Their work does.”
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Each day is a bench.
Each hour a joint to shape.
Our attention: the chisel.
Our breath: the measure.
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“Every pass of the plane counts.
Even sanding is a prayer.”
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Do not fear the imperfect piece.
Finish it anyway.
Then begin again.
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Consider:
How do I feel about what I am building?
Reading:
“The outward work can never be small if the inward work is great.”
— Meister Eckhart, Sermon on Ecclesiasticus 24:17
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“Then happy I, that love and am beloved,
Where I may not remove nor be removed.”
— William Shakespeare, Sonnet 25
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“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us:
and establish thou the work of our hands upon us;
yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.”
— Psalm 90:17 (KJV)