When my wife and I got married we moved into one of her grandfather’s rental houses. It needed some work to say the least. He did some things for us like install new vinyl siding, but we did a lot of the major things like add a concrete driveway, paint, new kitchen cabinets and more. I have written about some of my escapades in remodeling before.

This is one area of my life where I feel completely and totally inadequate. I’m not good with my tools or painting. I start with a grand vision, but the final product never makes me feel like I have done an awesome job. I definitely feel relief, but never feel like I am a fine craftsman.

One specific area where I struggle is as a carpenter. I look at fine pieces of woodwork and can’t believe that a man can use his hands and tools to make such intricate pieces of furniture and decoration.

When I started working on the inside of the house, it was install the cabinets, paint the walls and then I moved on to the finish carpentry – the crown molding. Some of the more experienced guys at church told me it was a piece of cake – just hold the molding upside down and backwards. I tried that – apparently my version of upside down and backwards is not correct. As many different ways as I could think of, I could not get the crown molding to go up correctly. After cutting through several 12 foot sections of molding, I decided to cheat. Rather than working on cutting the corners, I would just buy the decorative corner pieces already cut. Yet, another mistake. I couldn’t find a good way to attach these pieces and they just looked awkward and out of place, especially in the smaller rooms. While, I finally got the molding up it was just never “right.” I still don’t like the way it turned out.

I got thinking about this the other day. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was also a carpenter by trade. The difference in me and Jesus is that he knows how to take us when we are upside down and backwards and turn us into beautiful crown molding that fits together beautifully. The really great thing about professionally done crown molding is that it totally makes the room look much better and more elegant. Jesus died on the cross to take sin from our lives and to make us beautiful in the eyes of God. I hope the we can take that good news, and like professionally done crown molding, make a positive impact on the environment where we’ve been “installed.”