Boyhood Construction

I was the oldest of four boys and we were always into a building project.  On the back side of our property, there was a poplar tree that had three trunks coming from the same root ball.  The trunks angled out and then straight up for sixty or seventy feet.  It was great for building a tree house … and then a two-story tree house … with a zip line … and trap-door entrance.  This extravagant structure took a pile of boards and several pounds of nails.  We were constantly repurposing boards, pulling out nails, and straightening nails.  My dad lost materials and tools to our projects until he had to put an end to it.  We were warned, but nothing worked.  So, my dad built a 3’ X 3’ X 4’high wooden chest with a padlock on it!  Our pilfering came to a screeching halt.  But then I figured out how to remove the screws from the hinges and bypass the padlock.  I had to daily reattach the hinges before dad got home at five.  Hey, I might have been disobedient, but at least I was resourceful.  I thought that I was so clever until the day that I forgot to reattach the door.  Dad came home to find his tool chest open, and tools spread all over the woods behind our house.  I’ll never forget that day … for several reasons.  Solomon said in Proverbs 20:17, “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.”  I learned a valuable lesson in honesty that day.  And my dad became a little more open to our tree house construction.  He left a few tools on the wooden chest (unlocked) for us to use.  And he always found them back where they were supposed to be.  Most of the time.