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The more I carpent, the more am intrigued with Jesus' choice of being born into the household of a carpenter. I mean, who gets to choose those kind of details on the front end of life? Not usually really big on reading into things, but the smell of all the wood shavings, the sound of tools, the sense-immersed concreteness of everything...

Have been reading a bit about architecture. There is some fun to be had in the properties of different materials. All force acting upon a structure as either compression (pushing) or tension (pulling). Stone is amazing under compression, but it cracks easily under tension. Steel has wonderful capacities in tension and compression until it is very cold or hot. But wood.

Wood has good compression strength and amazing tensile strength. Look at a tree. Every part of the tree above ground is reaching, branching out further and further, balancing above the ground in a dance of tension and compression. Then open it up and look at the wood. The grain made up of layers, producing the strength of a composite structure in a direction. The design is beautiful. And working wood with chisel in hand and the tree in mind... Buber's example at the beginning of 'I and Thou'.

I think of Blake's Ancient of Days. God, the creator of all things, the one who fashioned men and trees chose to be born into the household of a carpenter.