The Carpenter-King: Viva Christo Rey!

Mary Venturella Graffagnini was a good friend of mine.  The first time I saw her work, I did not believe she had made what I was seeing.  At the time I met Mary, she was already well into her 70's, and she was showing me a one-of-a-kind work of art, made of at least a dozen different pieces of cast-off wood.  Anyone else would have thrown these scraps into the garbage, but Mary had taken these good-for-nothing odds and ends and had fashioned them into the most beautiful, polished structures, resembling waves of wood.

"You didn't make that," I said, knowing what kind of machinery it would have taken to produce this object.  With that, this almost-elderly grandmother of eight took me into her workshop, where I saw jigsaws, polishers, and other tools that I could hardly believe she was using to create her artwork.  Later, Mary was to show me hundreds of pieces of art, all unique and beautiful.  She would begin with the central piece of wood, much as Michelangelo would begin with a block of marble,  Studying the grain of the wood and the size of the scrap, she would envision what it might become, and how it could fit into an overall pattern with other scraps she might find.  What I might see as covered with dust and mold, Mary could see in its finished and polished state, carved into new shapes to highlight its natural beauty, and fitting into shapes with other scrapes she had rescued from the dumpster.

When I see Mary's work today, I am reminded of what the Carpenter-King can do with lives that have been scarred by pain and abuse.  What is fit in the eyes of the world only for the scrap-pile, He, the Creator-King, can make into a work of art-- not only something beautiful in itself, but something that fits perfectly into an overall pattern with other pieces, something that now forms a "new creation," waves of wood, for example.

One reason I love reading the lives of the saints is that therein I can see the hand of the Divine Artist, the one who came as a Carpenter, to fashion wood into functional and beautiful works of art.  In the Old Testament description of the Tent of Meeting between God and man, the furnishings were all of acacia wood, overlaid with gold.  The wood represented man; the gold, God.  The tabernacle, the mercy-seat, the candlesticks -- everything used in the Temple was fashioned from wood overlaid with gold.  And certain men were endowed with "the Sprit of practical wisdom" to know how to fashion works of beauty for the House wherein the Divine Presence was to dwell, the place where men could go to meet God.  That 'house'/tabernacle/ Tent of Meeting today is the gathered church, those wherein the Spirit of God dwells -- men and women whose lives have been overlaid with the Spirit of God and who have been redeemed from the scrap-pile of life, fashioned by a Divine Carpenter, and anointed with the gold of the indwelling Presence.  And together, we are being built into a place where God lives on earth.  We are being fit together into the Dwelling Place of the Spirit of God on earth:  Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them.

Each one of Mary's works was one-of-a-kind, depending on the kinds of wood she found, the size of the pieces, and the way she fitted them together into a final shape.  And each congregation fashioned by the Divine Carpenter is also unique, depending on the personalities, the lives, the inherent talents He finds in His 'scraps of wood.'  But the Carpenter-King knows what to do with lives that are given over to Him, how to fit them perfectly with other lives, and how to fashion them into a worthy dwelling for His Father and His own Spirit.  Viva Christo Rey!