Lent and Advent are seasons of contemplation, perhaps more than any others. While during Lent, we focus on Holy Week, and all things leading to the cross, I have found myself musing on the life of Jesus before his years of formal ministry. He did not choose to come as an earthly king or military leader, as some supposed he would, but as we know, he came in the very humblest of conditions, to the very humblest of families. In this family he would learn a trade – a trade that would reflect who he was.
He chose to be a carpenter – to build, to create, because that is his nature – to take something raw and primitive and make something beautiful, useful, out of it. He demonstrated this when he made everything in the beginning, and he does the same when he shapes a human heart into a new creation. His earthly occupation could be nothing less than one who fashioned things from his hand.
He chose to be a carpenter
A shaper of the wood
No doubt he made some useful things
And they were very good
He chose to be a carpenter
To fashion with his hands
The wood that he created
It was the Master Plan
He chose to be a carpenter
To wear our human skin
To work and toil and to fulfill
Redemption’s perfect plan
He chose to be a carpenter
A maker of beautiful things
His earthly occupation
Could be no less than this
For he takes the human heart
Raw and rough and cold
And fashions it to please his heart
His work makes us his own
He chose to be a carpenter
He chose to condescend
He chose to give his life away
To shape our hearts for Him
Michelle Dowdy
Life By The Way 