"Twisted, but in the Master's hands"

A while ago I found a piece of twisted wood in the wood-pile out back that caught my attention. It was ugly! Twisted, with rotted parts that were dead long before the tree was chopped down. The thing was ugly when it was alive! It was one of those "weed" trees and someone had tried to kill it before, and the thing just sprouted branches up around the stump. The center had dried out and was crumbling while these new branches grew. When I finally chopped it down, I took it to the roots. It's dead now. Been dead for years. All this came to mind as I walked back to the house cradling it in my arms. My wife thought it looked like an animal's butt and legs. One of the kids said it looked like a dead lizard someone stepped on. It was ugly!

I couldn't take my eyes off it!

Something in it drew me.

I pulled out my knife and started stripping off the bark. Ants poured out of it! I wacked it against the ground to get rid of them. It happened twice more, as I hit pockets of them. I eventually got rid of the all the bugs and the bark. I held it up and stared at it. The grain swirled and twisted, it was almost attractive!

I held it out and turned it. Again and again I turned it and looked at it. Then I saw it! I should say, I saw him. A face sat just under the surface. I took out the knife again and started cutting into it. The chips started to pile-up around my feet. My legs were covered in chips. I kept cutting into it. I was bound and determind to create that face that I had imagined resting under it's surface. Soon he smiled up at me and I smiled back. "Hello there." I said to the wooden face. It didn't answer, I'm not that crazy.

The piece isn't finished yet, but I still work on it now and again as I have time. The twist is it's crown. The knots are in it's hair. But now when my wife and kids see it they say it's not ugly anymore.

A bit ago I had a run in with a twisted part of my mental faculties, I hit a glitch in my programing. My heads not setting on too straight. You get the picture. I had a problem.

A dear friend said to me.

"You know that twisted piece of wood you've been working on?"
"Ya." I said. Sometimes I have a way with words.
"When you get done with it, it'll be beautiful. Won't it? You won't stop till it is. And it's already better looking than it was, right?" He asks knowing my answer.
"Ya." I said as he nods.
"So when the master is done with it, it will be beautiful just as you planned."
"Yep." I said. I have such a huge vocabulary.
"That's the same way it is with God, the Master Creator as He works on your twistedness. He won't stop till He's done."

Unlike that wood though I have the ability to get outta His hands and walk away. My part is to stay put no matter how much it hurts.

'Cause I'm twisted, but in the Master's hands!

God Bless!
E.J.