Light
Today is a finishing day. Sanding, and milk paint, and sanding, and more paint, and sanding, and shellac, and sanding…
I have mixed attitudes towards finishing days. On one hand, they’re delightful. I get to see my work in its final state, which on balance I’m usually happy with. The grain pops, the milk paint does something unpredictable I like, and the shellac brings out qualities in the wood that had been hidden up to that point.
On the other hand, finishing can be maddening because it’s here where unattended-to-flaws become really obvious and flash at me like lights on a police car. They cannot be ignored. They demand attention.
All the more worse since I started all this sanding and painting and shellacking last night, only to continue it this morning when sunlight is coming in through the window. More light = more awareness of flaws = more… sanding. Yes, I know, I shouldn’t complain. If a better box is the end result of more sunlight, it’s worth it.
Sunlight, as they say, is the best disinfectant, or in my case the best agent for exposing where I’ve messed up and need to do better.
Christmas is a week away, for which you should obviously buy Shaker oval boxes as gifts. But it strikes me during all this sanding that of the two broad emphases during Christmas, the cultural, Santa Clause version and the Christian, Jesus in a manger version, it’s the Santa Clause version most people are comfortable with. Here’s my theory why: the Jesus version, if we engage with it honestly, will eventually lead us to the recognition that this message is like sunlight in the way it exposes our ugly bits (“sin” being the operative biblical word). In fact, that type of light is exactly what the Christmas message is about. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men… The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:4, 9-13, ESV).
Don’t get me wrong. Santa Clause is great, and may he bring you and yours many handmade wood products! But the secular aspect of Christmas is only good to the extent that we don’t let it distract us from the actual purpose of the day - to shine light where we’d really, if we’re honest, rather not have it. And to let that light expose our ugly bits so they can be made beautiful. May the true light of the world shine on you this Christmas.
