Jesus, I Want to Know You ಮಾದರಿ

Jesus Is Working in Your Life

Jesus knew ordinary. He knew the feel of a splinter in his thumb, the smell of earth and sawdust, the sound of nails against boards. He understood deadlines and demanding customers. He comprehended the common, the kind of day that slips right by without fanfare or fireworks.

Ted Olsen says, “As carpenters, Joseph and Jesus would have created mainly farm tools (carts, plows, winnowing forks, and yokes), house parts (doors, frames, posts, and beams), furniture, and kitchen utensils."

Jesus likely would have begun his work as a carpenter while still a teenager. When we consider this, it seems a decade or more of his time on earth could have been used differently. Only ten percent of Jesus’s life was spent in public ministry.

I think we need to know this because we will all have “carpenter years.” Times when we don’t feel like we’re living up to our potential. We feel like we could be doing something more, something bigger. We can resist the smallness. We, like the questioning crowd around Jesus, can become disappointed and disillusioned by what doesn’t seem as grand as we’d imagined.

So much of God’s plan is a mystery. But those “wasted” years in his life, in ours? It seems clear there is no such thing. The master carpenter knows how to make every part useful, every part beautiful.

And he is not done with his work in us yet.

Jesus, I take comfort in the example of your life. I pray that I will serve you faithfully wherever you have me today. Amen.

How can you see Jesus working in the ordinary moments of your life?