Vicar’s Corner
This Week (19 Oct 08)
A Keeper
My practical parents grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
A mother, God love her, who washed aluminium foil after she cooked in it, then reused it. Who made our under-wear from flour bags and sewed together sheep-skins to make a carpet. She was the original recycle queen before they had a name for it.
A father who was happier getting old shoes resoled than buying new ones. Who invested any savings he ever made as a market gardener to put us three boys through boarding school.
Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can still see them now, Dad in trousers, woollen shirt and a hat, and Mum in a house dress, a dish-towel in one hand and the copper stick in the other.
It was a time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, a screen door, the hem in a dress, one of the hand-me-down bikes. Things we kept.
It was a way of life and sometimes it made me crazy or even embarrassed. All that re-fixing, eating as a family, renewing, and the pass-me-down clothes. I wanted to just once to be wasteful or have something new.
That meant affluence. Throwing things away was simply not considered.
It meant that there must be something more.
But when my parents passed away I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more.
Sometimes, what we care about most, gets all used up and goes away….never to return. So…..while we have it….it’s best we love it….care for it….and fix it when it’s broken… and heal it when its sick.
This is true: for marriage….and old cars….and children with bad report cards….and dogs with bad hips….and ageing parents….and grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we just simply keep. Like family and friends.
Good friends are like stars….you don’t always see them or understand them….. but they are always there.
Keep them close.
Steve. 
Last Week (12 Oct 08)
The Carpenter’s Tools.
One day on the way to work, the tools in a carpenter’s work bag began to have a discussion.
Everyone started picking on Mr Hammer because they reckoned he made to much noise and suggested he should leave.
“Well if I go, then Mr Drill should go too.” he replied, “because he pokes holes in every thing.”
Mr Drill stood up and said, “Alright, but Mr Screw must go also. You have to turn him around and around to get him anywhere.”
Mister screw counted, “If you wish, I will go, but Mr Plane must go as well. His work is all on the surface and has no depth.”
Mr Plane spluttered, “Mr Ruler will have to withdraw as well. He’s always measuring up people as if he’s the only one that’s perfect.”
In the middle of this growing discussion the Carpenter of Nazareth opened his bag to begin his day’s work. By days end he had used every one of the different tools.
Mr Screw stood up and said, “Friends, we need to turn our thoughts around. I see we were all workers together with God and all equally important in this world!”
Yes, every comment about each tool was true, yet the Carpenter used every one of them to perfect His work. There wasn’t a job that could not be done by another tool.
God has placed each one of us in this world with a unique purpose according to a work He has planned for us. Grumbling about how others do things or finding fault with any of Gods other “tools” is really a no, no! If you need to, try talking to the Carpenter instead.
Steve.