God's masterpiece

Who has built anything out of wood? If you have, you know how much work is involved in making it fit together and look good.

Noah’s masterpiece was the Ark, built out of wood, and a pretty impressive sight it must have been. There must have been thousands of pieces of wood used, each piece carefully shaped and all fitted carefully together. Once it had served its purpose though, there was no further use for it. Some say it still exists locked away in ice in some mountain.

The biggest wooden structure in the world is a temple in Japan (for a Budda statue). It was first built in 758AD, destroyed by fire in 1180, then slowly rebuilt (interrupted by a few wars), destroyed by fire again in 1567 and rebuilt again in 1709. A lot of time and effort was put into this immense structure with, over the years, perhaps 100s of thousands of pieces of wood.

Howard Hughes built an aeroplane, the Spruce Goose. It was a huge and it too was built out of wood. It was a very impressive size even by today’s standards, and it actually flew. It too must have used thousands of pieces of wood, each piece carefully shaped and all fitted carefully together but it only flew once then it was locked away in a museum.

God’s masterpiece was also some carpentry. This one was not so impressive too look at. It was not very big. It only had two pieces, not very carefully put together. It was rough, poorly finished and un-polished. Yet it is still just as important today as the day it was made.

Think you have seen some impressive carpentry? You should see what God did with a couple of bits of wood and a few nails.