PLYMOUTH – As Sabrina and I have been going through our belongings and trying to determine what we will keep and what we will discard during our transition, we have discovered that we collected way too many antiques. This does not include Sabrina or me! We would be considered more like legacy items or invaluable heirlooms.
In our younger years, antiquing was a pastime and hobby we greatly enjoyed. Many times, we would get away for a weekend and while we were out and about, we would begin checking out junk stores, secondhand shops and antique malls for some special treasure that we just could not live without.
The determining factors as to whether an item was a treasure was very simple. It must be something we liked, it must be restorable, and it had to be inexpensive. Oh, yea. It couldn’t cost very much either! LOL.
We didn’t necessarily need the item because after I restored them, we usually gave them to family or friends. This time-consuming process kept me off the streets at night and out of Sabrina’s way. She tells me the house is decidedly cleaner when I am absent, and she likes a clean house, thus my absence is appreciated.
On one particular outing we found a 1930 Duncan Phife style mahogany drop leaf table with two extension leafs and four chairs. It was in pretty rough shape, but we liked it and it was cheap so it met our purchasing requirements. The latter is always the deciding factor. The only problem was we were in our car. Even though our car had a big back seat and a mafia-sized trunk, there was no way we were going to maneuver the furniture in such a way that it would fit into either compartment.
But as God would have it (you see if I bring God into the equation, it provides me grounds for justification if I need it later) our friends were camping nearby, and they had their pick-up truck with them. So we gave them a call, and they graciously picked it up for us and even delivered it to our home. They are really good friends!
Once we got the items home and checked them out a little more closely we decided to restore them for our oldest son and his wife. They didn’t need them anytime soon so that gave me plenty of working days to do what needed to be done.
I began taking the table apart in preparation for the stripping process and removing all of the hardware. When I removed the legs and bracing from the underside, it revealed a unique feature. For the past 90 plus years these pieces of wood had been hiding the red stained fingerprints of the maker of this furniture.
There were about ten or twelve different imprints covering this previously veiled area of wood, and from the size and appearance of the prints, the carpenter did not seem to be a very large man.
As I looked at the prints, my mind began to wonder what kind of individual this fellow might have been. It was evident that he was a fine craftsman and disciplined in his art. For furniture built today to last more than 20 years is a major accomplishment, and this had been around more than four times that long and was still in good condition.
I would imagine that if I continued to inspect the pieces more closely that they would have revealed more and more marks of their maker. A cut here and a small indention there. There could possibly have been some initials or even a signature hidden in some crevice or under a strip of molding. Standing back and looking at it as a whole it was obvious that a master craftsman conceived, designed and built this table. It didn’t just happen.
It amazes me that some of mankind can look at his fellow human beings and not see the fingerprints of his Maker in them, yet we can pull apart a simple wooden structure and see the signs of intelligent design throughout.
I believe if we look closely enough at the smallest of molecules to the grandest of universes, we would see the fingerprints of the Maker marking them all. In fact, I believe that if you were to pull back the veil that covers your soul you could see the indelibly red stained fingerprints of your Maker. And if I were a betting man (I’m a Baptist, so that’s doubtful) I would bet that He has probably carved His initials in your heart.
All we need to do is look. His prints are there. And by the way, He is pretty handy at RESTORING His creation. Even old antiques like me.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tim Patterson is Executive Director/Treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of Michigan. Elected unanimously in May of 2015, Patterson formerly served for 9 years as pastor of Hillcrest Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla. He also served as trustee chair and national mobilizer for the North American Mission Board.
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