We sit and talk. Eventually she clears her throat and quietly asks, “What do you do if you feel like you’ve wasted your life?” The silence hangs thick in the air between us.
It’s a heavy question of the heart.
And I think of the One who had the most meaningful existence ever. For so many years, He was simply a carpenter.
I say this out loud, pondering.
“He didn’t need more practice,” I say, “And it sure seems like He could have started His ministry earlier and gotten more done. But for some inexplicable reason, He spent years working with wood. Years we would have called wasted.”
She looks up, smiles. We part ways. Next time I see her she holds a sheet of paper in her hand. It has these words on it. I ask her if I can share them with you. She says yes.
Why did He need to be a Carpenter? Maybe, just maybe He was a carpenter for me…Each hurt is a board, each disappointment a piece of wood and each trial a plank.
Jesus, the Carpenter, is taking each piece of wood and nailing it together. He is nailing together a future that is unclear to me but I have peace because He is my Carpenter. I take great comfort in Ephesians 2:10. “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
I understand that was my past was not wasted. He is using it all to “build” me so I can do the good works God has prepared for me to do. I don’t know what He has in store for me in the next phase of my life; however, it doesn’t matter because He is building me into His Masterpiece.
Those “wasted” years?
In the Carpenter’s hands they can be transformed into a beautiful part of the dream.
More encouragement like this: You’re Made for a God-sized Dream {book}
