Pencils!

 

Have you noticed a pencil lately? Pencils: a core of material inside another material. Cores are usually graphite mixed with clay, perfect for making marks that can easily erase, yet are resistant to most chemicals, moisture, or natural aging. Most of the outside cylinders are wood or wooden composites. Today, many are still yellow outside, but there are also many with fancy spangly decorations.

Pencils, around since the late 1500s have given generations a tool for the same purpose we use them for today: marks on paper. Pencils give a way for letters to be practiced, then become words, then sentences; then recorded thoughts, prayers, hopes and despairs. With them we can make lists of what needs doing, first-drawing attempts, even fine art. Pencils allow us to express great individuality, with words and with changes of point sharpness, angle, shadings, erasing.

Wait! You might be saying. Where is the Spiritual Reflections column? Where is the connection to thinking about beginnings, endings, moments, everlastings? Well, the connection is that this week found me having a “waiting time in between things.” But I was in a place with no computer, no cell phone coverage, and where there was no pen in pocket or glove compartment. But a notebook was in the car, and in the trunk a pencil—how my eyes lit up when catching sight of it. The point was in good enough shape to use, the eraser was still plump enough for any erasing. Soon, I was writing away.

First came a “to-do” list, thinking about what was expected to be in my day. When list-making interest faded, there came a time of making children’s art, stick figures and sketchy trees. Then shadings began, turning the angle of the point to the paper, as we had been taught when kids. And then, a prayer evolved, brought to mind by God’s gracious Spirit, helping me know where my thinking was landing.

Thank you God,
for thinking, writing,
reflection,
list-making, doing, being,
for seeing beauty, dreaming,
remembering,
mistaking, erasing,
re-doing, re-shading,
re-making;
Bringing more fully to light
through core-with-covering
and paper with space
the creating You create,
within and through
these simple tools—
human minds, hands,
pencil points and paper.
Thank you, God.

Like pencils we sometimes need re-sharpening, sometimes need to re-shape our thinking, dull our pointed tongues, undo what we have planned—and God, who created graphite, trees, material for erasers, awareness, and thinking-things-through, creates in us creativity to form, and be re-formed.

Long before there were pencils, Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto me.” So go out into your day, with a pencil, a piece of paper, an eraser. Find a spot where computers, electricity, cellphones, to-do lists and doing things perfectly don’t control. Be intrigued by child-like joy in beauty, laughter at rhyming words, pictures with stick figures, mixing of shadings. Let it be good enough, for a portion of your day. In fact, come to think of it, we don’t need even a pencil or paper or erasers—just our simple selves are good enough. Thanks be to God.

Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Pastor Kris Garey, Trinity Lutheran Church, Hovland.