Knots

This morning I was looking at our oak flooring, and noticed a knot in the wood. A knot is a place on a tree where the tree either started a new branch or had some sort of other stress placed on the growth rings of the wood. These knots change the wood’s grain. That place makes a curve in the growth rings. These knots cause lots of  issues for wood workers. They are harder because the tree builds up that area to repair itself from the stress, therefore these knots are more difficult to machine, cut, and sand over.  You have to change how you approach your machining when you come to that knotty area. It is harder to work through that area, but usually that is where the wood is the most beautiful because of that change in the wood’s grain.

I think God gives us challenges and difficulties to make our wood grain more beautiful when we get to the finished product.