The How and Why of Ecclesiastes318
While visiting my parents in Massachusetts my father showed me his basement workshop. I noticed a small lathe and asked how he liked it. “Your brother gave it to me but I don’t use it. Why, you want it”? Really? Oh yeah! That lathe was the spark that got me into woodturning. Some excellent woodturners on Youtube became my teachers and hundreds of videos later later and obtaining tools, supplies and whatever wood I could find, off I went.
After about a year of learning how to turn wood I realized the limitations of the PSI Turncrafter Pro mini lathe. It is certainly a stout and dependable lathe, but I came to understand that a larger lathe with speed control and a versatile headstock would really help me utilize new skills. With the generous support of my parents, behold the Record Power Herald Coronet. I am reaching new heights of my craft with this amazing lathe while still also relying on the Turncrafter Pro.
So now I wander hither and thither on the lookout and collecting wood from fallen, cut down or unwanted trees.
Each tree species is distinctly different.
Each individual tree has wood qualities that reflect its own unique life.
Each piece of wood starts out rough.
With inspiration and hard work, more often than not a beautiful new form is revealed that hopefully blesses someone in the here and now of Today.
Why Ecclesiastes318 ?
Pete Seeger wrote a song called “Turn, Turn, Turn” that was a big hit for The Byrds in 1965. I heard this song many times on the radio growing up in that era and like many folks really connected to the lyrics as well as the melody. It wasn’t until many years later when I came to faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior that I read the whole Bible through for the first time and encountered the most famous book of wisdom ever written - King Solomon’s Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. There in chapter 3 I found the source of this classic song.
Every now and then after taking up woodturning that song would pop up in my head and I’d start humming or singing “turn, turn, turn.” When thinking of what to name my craft enterprise I kept hearing The Byrds singing that song and wanting to give God the glory decided on the name Ecclesiastes318 from the first eight verses of chapter 3.
For every tree, there is a time to be born and a time to die. I came to realize if I took a piece of wood from a tree that for one reason or another had finished its earthly life, I might be able to redeem it, transform it with the gifts the Lord has given me, and resurrect something new and beautiful. I have discovered and come to treasure my gifts only because I too was redeemed by grace and given a new life.
So now I turn, turn, turn and pray whoever receives what I have created will be blessed.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
English Standard Version
A Time for Everything
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.