Plane and Simple

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ur house on Main Street grew with our family.  When mom and dad purchased the house in the early ‘60’s, it had only two bed rooms, one bath, a kitchen, a den, and a central hallway. Then, as my brother, my sister and I came along, the necessity to enlarge the home was a foregone conclusion.

We lived through and survived three remodels on that house and with each upgrade several lessons in patience were just waiting to be learned.  One of these lessons stands out in my mind and the older I grow the more I realize its truth.

During the second remodel, mom and dad altered our large den into a new bathroom and a hallway with a pantry, two closets, and a laundry area.  As the construction drew to a close it was time to place the doors on the closets.  The carpenters arrived with the doors, measured the openings, measured the doors and then took them outside.

A large table with vice grips had been set up in our backyard and the lesson began.  The carpenter placed the door into the vice grips so that it could not move.  Then he took a plane and began shaving off thin slivers of the door.  With each pass of the plane, more wood fell to the ground.  It wasn’t long before there were wood chips everywhere. It looked as if we were starting our own mulching business.

Every once in a while, the door was released from the clamps and taken inside.  The carpenter set it in the frame, took more measurements, and returned to the back yard to shave off more wood. I wondered if there was going to be anything left of the door.  Finally, after several trips inside to see if the door fit the opening, and after several more passes of the plane, the carpenter set the door.  It was a perfect fit!  All those measurements and all those passes of the plane to remove the unwanted wood were necessary for the door to fit into its opening.

In Romans 8:28-29, Paul writes, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

We don’t have to look very far into this passage to see the “plane” and simple truth of God’s work in our lives.  In the middle of the verse you will find the word, conform.  The word simply means with form.  In other words, when we conform something, we cause it to take the form of something else.  In this instance, God says plainly that His works to conform us to the image of Christ and that means we have to undergo the plane.

Every trial, every temptation, every circumstance in life is really God’s plane shaving off unwanted and unnecessary areas of our lives that prevent us form perfectly fitting into the image of Christ.  God puts us on His table, fastens us where we cannot move, and then shaves us down until we conform to the very image of Christ so that our lives and our attitudes reflect him in every way.

Wherever you are today, know that God loves you. He will not remove anymore from your life than is necessary so that you reflect the very image of His son.  If you are on the table today you are there because God is working on you, perfecting your life, removing blemishes and areas that prevent you from being all He knows you can be.  That is the “plane” and simple truth.