During my days of teaching Natural Resources, I often invited guest speakers to come and tell students about their occupations. Conservation Police Officers, Game Biologists, Fishery Managers, US Fish and Wildlife personnel and more visited the classes to share experiences, advantages, and disadvantages of their jobs in the natural resource field.
After teaching a unit on bird identification, bird habitat, bird habits, and all things birds, I invited retired Agriculture Extension Agent Ned Conklin to visit. Over the years, Ned has carved hundreds of exquisite birds that grace homes up and down the valley and in other states. He has donated many of these to the Shenandoah District Brethren Disaster Ministries Auction in Harrisonburg to benefit those impacted by natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, floods, and the like. His works have always been some of the most sought after items commanding the highest bids.
As Ned shared his passion for this hobby, one of the students asked, “How do you do such a great job carving these decoys?” Having been asked that question before, he readily answered, “It’s very simple. Just cut away anything that doesn’t look like a duck.” This self-deprecating answer downplays the thousands of hours of tedious work honing his craft over many years.
While this clever answer makes it sound easy, the artistic gift to produce exact replicas of geese, bluebirds, mallards or flickers is enormously complicated. In addition to woodworking skills, he must also study each bird to know what “doesn’t belong” and then add colors that do.
I’ve thought since how Ned’s answer could also be applied to our spiritual experience. How do you live a faithful Christian life? Simply get rid of anything that doesn’t look like Jesus. Only just like duck carving, it’s never quite that simple. By the time we become convicted of many sins, they are already deeply engrained habits that are not only difficult to break, we often don’t even want to. They’ve become more a part of us than a knot in tight-grained maple.
The task of producing an authentic life that mimics Jesus requires not just thousands of hours of painstaking intricacy, but a lifetime of walking with the Savior. The only way to know what doesn’t look like Him is to know Him well. We do that by reading His Word, spending time in prayer, and listening to His Holy Spirit.
Even then, it’s still not easy to repent or cut away our cherished sins. We sometimes need the Holy Spirit to chisel these away in spite of the pain it causes. At times, He may need to get out His band saw or Dremel tool to make drastic changes while other situations may only require a bit of sanding.
Chip by chip, a life resembling the Savior’s begins to emerge from the rough block He started with. Unlike the lifeless wood, we have to cooperate with the Carver and yield to His skill or resist and fight against Him. How much quicker and easier it goes when we submit to His tools and allow Him to make the necessary alterations.
Also unlike duck carving, much must be added. Although a bird carver might add glass eyes or attach feet fashioned from another board, most of the finished specimen comes from the same chunk of wood necessitating only the removal of excess, per Ned’s explanation. In our Christian lives, however, in addition to removing that which doesn’t belong, the Holy Spirit also has to add much where we are lacking. We naturally have little to no love for our fellowman, grace for others, or internal peace. Thankfully, He has a rich supply and knows how to integrate them into our natural tendencies to develop something resembling the Model.
As we consider Ned’s gift of carving birds, may it remind us of God’s work in shaping and forming us into Christ’s likeness, and may we yield to His hand. Blessings, George
And some photos if you can include them. One of the craftsman, Ned Conklin and one of a flicker he hand carved and painted.
