Making bowl variations on a wood lathe begin oddly for novice turners. The prime reason is your perspective. The process always begins by shaping the bottom and outside of a bowl first, then one worries about the inside. Once the process sinks in and one begins to believe, the steps confirm the logic within themselves. How else could you work with these tools?
The strange part is that this process is not automatically transferable to anything else. It is almost too easy to forget this. We worry about the externals first, then the inside. We shape, carve, and sand our visible exterior to a refined finish know that this is this is where everything begins.
God knows better.
When I turn a bowl, I find that the exterior work is critical to the real heart of the matter for one primary reason. By working on the outside, I create a place to fasten the wood blank to the lathe and get at the core or the work. Shaping the outside merely positions me to have an opportunity where I can subtly carve an expansion or compression hold-point. I find it easier to work on an expansion hold; metaphorically, this works as well!
God already has a hold point in our lives. We carry a thirst to experience the Divine. We long fully experience our created potential. It is only when our thirst is quenched though being in the Presence and living life with Spirit, that we discover just how beautiful life can really be. My natural tendency is worry and work on the externals, hoping that I can create a hold point for God. I can be so terribly wrong at times!
The answer lies with a different approach. “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts.” (Proverbs 4.23) If my heart is in the wrong place, any work on my own; pursuit of money, diligence with behavior, or discipline in approach is wasted. My center, my heart, is God's hold point.
God sees stunning beauty in you and I. We are his creation.
