|
|
Wood
Piles and Our Faith Last
Sunday morning I mentioned some of my memories of getting ready for winter. We
would go out and “get fire wood.” This usually meant cut down some trees,
cut it up, load it on a wagon, and haul it to the house. Once we got there we
had to unload the wood. Some times we chopped the wood up more so as to fit in
the stove and stack it up so most of the wood was not in the dirt. We
would do this on Saturdays until Dad figured we had enough wood to last the
winter. It was, at times, hard work; we would start in the morning and work
until almost dark. This was also a family affair. Mom and my sister Sharon would
all go out with Dad, Mike, and me. We would take a picnic consisting of pickled
bologna, crackers, chips, Little Debbie snack cakes, and Kool-Aid. To tell you
the truth, I have good memories of those Little Debbie cakes. It
was interesting to cut wood with Dad. We had two wood burning stoves. The
kitchen stove required smaller wood than the heating stone in the living room.
He would look at the size of the tree and how much wood it contained. He also
looked at the type or kind of tree it was. Some wood burns better than others
and some is easier to split with an axe than others. He also looked at any
obstacles he would have in cutting down a tree. Sometimes a tree would be
positioned between other trees in such a way it would get lodged against those
other trees. In those situations we would have to cut down more trees which
required more work. So Dad tried to teach us to think before cutting. Once
winter came we would keep enough wood on the porch to have dry wood to burn.
Depending on the weather, we would have some wood left over and that was all
right, for that wood would be used during the summer to fire the cooking stove
in the kitchen. Once
or twice I remember us not having enough wood stored up and having to cut some
during the middle of winter. While cutting wood in October is work, cutting it
in January is hard work. Notice if
you will the emphasis on the word “hard” for it was harder work. Wood that
is frozen is harder on the chain saw and more difficult to chop with an axe. Not
to mention the problem of getting to the wood with a tractor or truck. It was
best to have the wood before it got cold and snowy. There were no picnic lunches
and Little Debbie snack cakes on these days. This
last week I got to thinking about the wood pile and our faith. Our
faith is some thing we have to work on. No one is just born with faith, it is
something we are taught. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of
God” (Romans 10.17). One can not have faith in God without knowing who God is,
what God does, how God thinks, and what God wants. The only way to know those
things is by reading His word. No one can develop your faith for you so you and
I have to work to have faith. I notice 2 Peter 1.5 tells us to add to our faith,
virtue. This means we can add to our faith. If I don’t have faith, it is
because I have not been studying the Bible enough. If
we want out children to have faith, we must teach them God’s word. I am sure
there were times when we were young that Dad could have gotten more wood without
us than with us. However, we would never have learned how to cut down a tree
and/or chop wood. Parents are told to teach and nourish their children,
Ephesians 6. What we learn as children tends to stay with us. Paul speaks of
Timothy’s faith in 2 Timothy. How did Timothy learn the scriptures? He learned
from his mother and grandmother, 2 Timothy 1.5. Timothy’s faith was not the
result of an accident, but a plan. God’s plan is for parent’s to teach their
children about God and His word. We must teach our children to think and
meditate upon God’s work; to recognize difficult passages and let the plain
explain the difficult. We are to teach our children to reject superstition and
fables in place of the Bible. In other words we should teach our children to
study as one would cut down a tree, carefully, and with forethought. The
more care we take in building out faith the better it will work for us later on.
There were years when we just piled all the wood together and then sorted it out
as it was being burned. Then there were years when we stacked it in straight
rows. I don’t have to tell you which one required more work. But it was easier
to get the wood we needed when it was in straight rows. The same can be said for
our faith. This means we must study and rightly divide the word of God, 2
Timothy 2.15. Finally,
it is easier to face trials and tragedies if we have faith before those things
occur. Some times people wait until something bad happens and then get
interested in God. They wonder why their faith is not strong and start to
question God. Just as one can cut wood in bad weather, one can develop faith in
the midst of a trial. But it is easier if one does both before hand. So
the next time you see a wood pile just ask yourself if you have been adding to
your faith and whether you have enough. – Dennis Tucker |