Carpentry may at first seem a strange trade for the Savior of the world to learn while He is waiting for His time to come. But as we think a little deeper, becoming a carpenter must have prepared Jesus in ways no other trade or profession might have. Before He was ready to build up the Kingdom of God, it is good that Jesus learned first how to build a house out of planks and nails. Before He opened the doors of Heaven, Jesus undoubtedly built quite a few earthly doors. As a carpenter, Jesus very likely sustained numerous injuries as He worked with the tools and materials of His trade. It does not seem impossible that in His youthful inexperience He may have even accidentally pounded a nail into His flesh. Setting aside all of His divine omniscience, Jesus Christ was uniquely and intimately familiar with the kinds of pain that nails and boards might inflict upon a person and was better prepared than most to meet His fate on the cross. Did He have some foreknowledge of His ultimate fate even as He helped Joseph to pound nails into wooden beams? Did He ever run His hands over a freshly sanded plank and imagine the agony He would feel as He hung suspended from just such a piece of wood? I am so grateful that the Creator of the Earth and all things therein, even worlds without number, was meek and lowly enough to take up the trade of the humble carpenter, and, when the time was right, to allow Himself to transition from the one who hammered in the nails to become the one into which the nails were hammered. I hope that all of us can follow His example of humility and sacrifice and deliver ourselves up into the hands of the Master Carpenter so that He may build each of us into something truly wonderful.
