3 Tools

 

I like tools, especially power tools.  But I have three hand tools that are especially dear to me.  These are not fancy tools, but they are actually very old.  And when I pass on, no one will realize how special these tools are unless I tell you.  So, I am telling you.  I have a stone-cutting hammer used by my great-great-grandfather on my mother’s side.   My mother’s father’s mother’s father, Elijah Naaman Lilly, cut limestone for building material and used the hammer in his work.  It is well-worn from countless blows during endless hours of work.  A good reminder of diligence.  I have a carpenter’s framing square used by my great grandfather on my father’s side.  My father’s mother’s mother’s father, John Wesley Wood, was a young corporal serving in the civil war when West Virginia was still western Virginia.  He returned home, married, had ten children, and worked as a carpenter.  He passed his tools on to his son-in-law, who passed the square on to his grandson, my father.  I used the same square today working on a cradle.  In the late 1980’s, a church member, Ralph Worley, was getting up in years, and I helped him often on church building projects.  He was the brains, and I was the brawn.  When we finished a project, he would give me some of the tools that we (I) had just used.  One of them was a heavy-duty digging bar made from a model A Ford axle by a blacksmith for Mr. Worley when he was a young man.  Mr. Worley was born in 1898, and each time he renewed his driver’s license, the computer wouldn’t work.  They had to enter his information manually.  Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.”  It’s good to remember the old times and the old people.  We need to be reminded that we will soon meet our Maker.  Hey, are you ready for that day?