To mark twenty years of ordained ministry, my family gave me a beautiful gift. It is a Swiss-made, ‘half-hunter’ pocket watch, complete with silver chain. I carry it sometimes in my waistcoat pocket. It’s not waterproof, solar-powered or digital. It doesn’t record laptimes or give altitude. It has a face and hands, needs to be wound manually and ticks very loudly. I guess it’s kind of ‘old school’, but it’s got class.
I remember the elderly jeweller and watch repairer from whom we got it. Tucked away in his cramped workshop, hidden behind the small shop counter, he used to love opening the back of old watches to study the mechanism with a magnifying lens. It seemed to give him great pleasure when everything was well-made and in order, ticking along correctly. He was one of a dwindling few who was able to follow and appreciate the workings of such things.
For all the information overload in the world these days, many struggle to find any order or reason to life. It can seem an incomprehensible, and often painful mystery. Vandalism and crime, cruel abuse, disaster, illness and tragedy, all with no apparent purpose. It appears frustratingly random.
But the Maker does give clues. We do get slipped some ‘pointers’, if we’re willing to see them.
Perhaps some amazing mechanisms in nature, like the solar system, the tides or the seasons. Perhaps some wonderful ‘coincidental’ circumstances which seem like, well, an answer to the prayer we hadn’t even got around to making yet, making us feel like maybe there is Somebody up/out there Who does actually see and care.
Then there’s Jesus - wise, kind, gentle, awe-inspiring, daunting yet captivating, I could go on! His motives so pure, His love so undeserved. Grace, they call it in the Bible.
Oh and that sense (admittedly stronger some days than others) when we are trusting, following and trying to obey Christ, that there is a plan. Some kind of big picture. A comforting assurance that the One Who knows and understands and actually runs the mechanisms of the universe knows what He’s doing and more, has a part for us to play.
Engraved on the back of my watch is a Bible reference, Ephesians 2 v 10:
‘For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.’
Scary? Maybe just a little; more like reassuring!
Like how things are meant to be when they’re ticking along correctly.
I remember the elderly jeweller and watch repairer from whom we got it. Tucked away in his cramped workshop, hidden behind the small shop counter, he used to love opening the back of old watches to study the mechanism with a magnifying lens. It seemed to give him great pleasure when everything was well-made and in order, ticking along correctly. He was one of a dwindling few who was able to follow and appreciate the workings of such things.
For all the information overload in the world these days, many struggle to find any order or reason to life. It can seem an incomprehensible, and often painful mystery. Vandalism and crime, cruel abuse, disaster, illness and tragedy, all with no apparent purpose. It appears frustratingly random.
But the Maker does give clues. We do get slipped some ‘pointers’, if we’re willing to see them.
Perhaps some amazing mechanisms in nature, like the solar system, the tides or the seasons. Perhaps some wonderful ‘coincidental’ circumstances which seem like, well, an answer to the prayer we hadn’t even got around to making yet, making us feel like maybe there is Somebody up/out there Who does actually see and care.
Then there’s Jesus - wise, kind, gentle, awe-inspiring, daunting yet captivating, I could go on! His motives so pure, His love so undeserved. Grace, they call it in the Bible.
Oh and that sense (admittedly stronger some days than others) when we are trusting, following and trying to obey Christ, that there is a plan. Some kind of big picture. A comforting assurance that the One Who knows and understands and actually runs the mechanisms of the universe knows what He’s doing and more, has a part for us to play.
Engraved on the back of my watch is a Bible reference, Ephesians 2 v 10:
‘For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.’
Scary? Maybe just a little; more like reassuring!
Like how things are meant to be when they’re ticking along correctly.
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