A New Creation

It was 1953, I was 20 years old and living on a property half way between Bourke and Cobar, on what is now known as the “Kidman Way”, which sounds nice, but it was just a rough dirt road in those days. 153 miles (about 300 kms) of dirt road separated me from a property at Nyngan, where the girl I hoped to marry lived. Her 20^th birthday was on the 30^th of August, about a month away, and I had a desire to give her something nice. Woodwork was my best subject at school so I thought I would make  her a wooden Jewellery box for her to keep her broaches and necklaces in. Obviously I needed some nice timber. There was none in the machinery shed so I wandered around the back of it where there was a pile of rubbish waiting to go to the tip and be burnt.  

 Among other rubbish I noticed an old wooden gauze door, it was  broken and must have been about 100 years old as the house it had belonged to had long been demolished. It was badly weathered and didn’t deserve a second glance except I noticed that where it was broken recently, (when thrown on the heap), the wood was a lovely red colour. Red Cedar, no less. Wow! what a find, so after work, for the next few days I was very busy removing its weather beaten surface and cutting it to size. I also had some sheets of wooden veneer that I had acquired some time before, so put a design on top as you see in the 2nd photo. However, I was disappointed as I wanted it to be very special; so I made another box and worked her initials into the veneer as you see in the third photo. AW (Audrey Wye) It is now 64 years since I made these, and the old gauze door frame, I made them out of, was about 100 years old at the time and the tree it was cut from was probably 200 years old. If that is so these boxes are 364 years old now. Another century won’t affect them much either because the timber is of a very high standard.

This transformation from something battered and scared into a thing of beauty reminds me of the poem about the “Old Violin” that was in a similar condition  to the old door, and the Auctioneer only wanted $1 for it until a master musician played a tune on it after which it brought $3,000.

When we look at an old door, an old violin or a person of any age, we should look past the outward appearance, as God does, and recognise just what they are made of. This door was Red Cedar, the Violin was probably an old Stradivarius, and irrespective of how a person looks they were “made in the image and likeness of God”. Therefore, I can fix the door, the Musician can fix the Violin and God can transform the person. You see, “many a person, with their life out of tune, and battered and scared through sin, is offered cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin; a bowl of pottage, a glass of wine, a game and they travel on, they’re going, going, and almost gone, but the Saviour comes and the thoughtless crowd can never quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that is made by the touch of the Master’s hand.”

There are millions of accounts of how God has rebirthed people. Jesus describes it as “being born again” indeed He made no bones about it when He said “you must be born again or you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. Now that is plain enough for anyone, isn’t it? If that old screen door had not been rebirthed by me and I had just tied it in a bundle and given it to my sweetheart I somehow doubt if she would have said “thank you darling” and placed it on her dressing table. What do you think? Similarly, if we present ourselves before Jesus, when our bodies die, and are still carrying our bundle of sin, we won’t be welcomed into Heaven any more than a suicide bomber is welcomed in a public place.

The bible is adamant that “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”. That gift of God mentioned there is the privilege of “being born again” which is the free gift we receive when we accept the forgiveness of sin that God offers us through the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf at Calvary. It cost me considerable effort to transform that old door into something Audrey would happily accept. Likewise, it will cost you and me some effort if we repent and decide to follow God’s ways; we each have a free will you see, therefore He won’t “gate-crash” so we have to ask Him to intervene and forgive our sin, after which we have to endeavour to follow His directions as laid out in the New Testament. “If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Regards, Tom.