The crane in the driftwood

This carving adorns my friend, Nancy's, fireplace.

A Michigan craftsman finds driftwood and studies the pieces. In this piece he saw a graceful Sandhill crane.

Knife stroke by careful knife stroke, he skillfully removed from that dirty mass of old disfigured tree everything that was unlike the magnificent crane he saw in his mind.

A carver must keep that perfect model in his thought while carving and not be distracted by what everybody else sees as merely an old piece of wood.

What a great lesson! How many people have we met who have lost their beauty, their joy, their peace of mind, maybe even their purpose for living? Perhaps their lives have been storm-tossed for a long time.

Somehow our paths cross.

Sometimes exchanging a smile of blessing, we each continue on our own paths.

Other times, like the Michigan carver, we connect. We make the effort to look deep beyond the battered and weathered exterior to find something extraordinary, something unique that remains of what their Creator created.

Like that carver, we focus on the beauty and goodness that cannot be seen with the eye. The eye stops at the scraggly surface. We have to look past the surface for the spiritual identity. I like to call it the Christ in me seeking the Christ in another. It takes patience and a lot of love.

Holding to that vision, it’s surprising how often we find beauty and goodness coming to the surface to be recognized and appreciated. The Creator's love that brings inner goodness to the surface also transforms the life.

Like the crane, hidden so long in the gnarled wood, that now rises to soar in the sky.

"We must form perfect models in thought

and look at them continually,

or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives."

Mary Baker Eddy

Photo thanks to Nancy Fischer