God’s Workshop

Last year while I was recovering from knee surgery, I began the process of building myself a small workshop. For many years it was on my bucket list, so I finally began. Having limited mobility and strength, the process has been long, slow and challenging. I was fortunate to have it dried in before the winter came, yet I still managed to tinker inside whenever I could. With limited resources I got creative and began covering the walls and ceiling with boards form discarded crates and pallets. As I would enjoy a cozy crackling fire in my wood stove, I would dismantle the pallets one board at a time, de-nailing and selecting each piece to fit just so. I took pleasure in using materials that others would casually toss aside. Yet I saw the goodness that was left in those many pieces. I spent hours cleaning, sizing, sanding and installing bits that would eventually reveal a tapestry of beauty. Occasionally, I have posted pictures of my progress, and was surprised at the comments from people who thought it looked so good. I’ve injected some colored pieces that have special meaning to me, as reminders of how God has been with me on a journey only He could arrange.

As I look at my work, I see every board, every grain, every color, every scar, and chip. They have been affixed to their permanent home and together with all their defects, serve as a reminder that perhaps, this is how God uses and sees us. There is not a one among us who came out of our mother’s womb, holy enough to be worthy of praise. Each one of us, through our lives will be wounded, scarred, chipped, cracked, broken, bullied and yes, discarded like one of my used shipping pallets. I would like to tell everyone that God sees in us, what I see in those dirty used boards. He sees our lives as I see my workshop, a work in progress. He takes us, broken and gently disassembles the parts of our lives that keeps us weighed down. He cherry picks the good in all of us and pulls that out. Our individual grains, sizes, thicknesses and colors will then be placed on His walls to make the tapestry of His imagination. He gathers us and puts some of us along side each other so we may all compliment one another.

He wants us to know that whatever burden we have carried in the past, is not in our future. He wants us to know that if we have been beaten down, bullied, ignored, or discarded that He sees the value in using us. If you have thoughts of being worthless, useless or invisible, I want to tell you that you have been lied to. God sees in you, what you may not see in yourself. We are all used pallet boards, yet in His eyes, we are the finest oak or mahogany that money can buy. I encourage everyone to let Him pull the nails out that have pinned you down. Let Him unload the weight of life that has held you down. Simply look up, and invite Him into your heart, and you will immediately feel the weight of the world come off your shoulders. Allow Him to clean you, trim your edges, sand your rough surfaces, and place you in His workshop. If you have children who are trying to find their way, or their identity, bring them to God’s table and introduce them to a Heavenly Father who will lift them higher than they can imagine. Give them hope for a better future. You deserve it, they deserve it, in fact we all deserve it. God wants nothing short of the very best for all of us, so He says we are deserving.

My little workshop will some day be complete, and I will remember many of the thousands of pieces that made it. God’s workshop has been under construction forever and will continue into eternity. The difference is, He will remember every one of us that He has placed in a special place. Unlike the discarded shipping pallets, we will never be thrown away because God has a purpose and a plan for all of us.

Mike Shindruk

Master’s Hand Ministry