The Singing Sawblade.

I have some very distant memories from my childhood. One memory is of my parents walking me around the city centre when we came across an old man who was playing music while sitting at the side of the street. We call them “buskers” nowadays. This was an old man who was sitting on a chair. He was wearing a long coat and had a cap on his head. Intertwined between his legs was a carpenter’s saw. The saw was bent at a peculiar angle and he was drawing a violin bow across it. And it made the most beautiful warbling music. As he vibrated his leg it caused the music to produce a vibrato sound which made it all the more hypnotic. And it was beautiful.

It was just a distant memory in the depths of my mind when for some strange reason it connect with another distant memory from my childhood.

In this memory I was a small child and I was being shown around my Dad’s workplace. He worked in a very large timber yard. There were acres and acres of wood piled up and ready to ship out to the various construction sites around the country. The company bought in trees that had been very recently cut down in places like Norway, Sweden and the Black Forest in Germany. And to my young eyes they were huge. The company then started to cut the tree trunks into planks and boards with a large mechanical saw. The circular sawblade itself was 2 meters in diameter and it cut through those tree trunks like a knife through butter.

I remember my dad telling me that these trees were still growing during World War 2 and that sometimes a tree would come along with bullets or shrapnel still embedded inside them. When the sawblade hit against this bit of metal it would make a pinging sound and “sing”.

Two distant memories of two metallic sounds. And yet they came together in my mind. You see…..

In a lot of ways Christians can be compared to those two sawblades. Everything is sweet and melodious when the grace of God’s bow is being drawn along us. God can make us produce the most lovely music, even when he shakes us up a little bit.

But sometimes God can bring to us some rougher experiences. And these experiences can have unexpected or hidden hardships buried within them. What do we do when we hit against one of these hardships?

Do we shatter and crumble like a cheap, badly made sawblade? Or do we ping and make sweet sounds of praises to God. In my own experience – I shattered. I broke into so many different pieces. But God knew that He could take the pieces and make something new.

Thankfully though, God’s salvation plan is one of continual redemption. Not in the sense of being saved over and over again, but in the sense of being renewed over and over again. The Bible regularly talks about the human spirit being broken and remade anew. Consider the scriptures about “fallow ground”….


Jeremiah ch4 (3)For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns.

Hosea ch10 (12)Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.

Also consider the scriptures that talk about the potter breaking and remaking the clay vessel…


Isaiah 64: (8)But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Jeremiah ch18: (6)"O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!

So. What sort of a song do you sing when God brings some difficulties into your life.

Listen to the words of the Old Testament Prophet Habakkuk…


Hababbuk ch3 (17)Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labour of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls (18)Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

And listen to what James, the brother of our Lord Jesus says…


James ch1 (2)My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, (3)knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (4)But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Let’s not forget that God is STILL in control.


God is still on the throne and He will remember His own.
Though trials may press us and burdens distress us
He never will leave us alone.
God is still on the throne and He will remember His own.
His promise is true. He will not forget you.
God is still on His throne.

Author - Kittie Louise Suffield. 1884-1972.

Sweet Rose of Sharon blooming for me.
Jesus it is the emblem of thee.
Beautiful flower. Fairest that grows.
I’m glad that I found you Sweet Sharon’s Rose.

Published 1986. All rights belong to the copyright holder.

 

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