December 30
Morning Verse
"Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." Ecclesiastes 7:8
Look at David's Lord and Master; see His beginning. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Would you see the end? He sits at His Father's right hand, expecting until His enemies be made his footstool. "As He is, so are we also in this world." You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. Cheer up, then, poor Christian. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." See that creeping worm, how contemptible its appearance! It is the beginning of a thing. Mark that insect with gorgeous wings, playing in the sunbeams, sipping at the flower bells, full of happiness and life; that is the end thereof. That caterpillar is yourself, until you are wrapped up in the chrysalis of death; but when Christ shall appear you shall be like Him, for you shall see Him as He is. Be content to be like Him, a worm and no man, that like Him you may be satisfied when you wake up in His likeness. That rough-looking diamond is put upon the wheel of the lapidary. He cuts it on all sides. It loses much—much that seemed costly to itself. The king is crowned; the diadem is put upon the monarch's head with trumpet's joyful sound. A glittering ray flashes from that coronet, and it beams from that very diamond which was just now so sorely vexed by the lapidary. You may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God's people; and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you. "They shall be Mine," saith the Lord, "in the day when I make up My jewels." "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof."
Morning and Evening. C.H. Spurgeon
We had a friend bunking with us this Christmas season. He and his father are scrimshanders Scrimshaw is the art of the whalers. Well, at least that is what I call it. I think it may refer to anything that they created from whale teeth, bone or baleen. But my friends specifically create works of art using the technique of scratching a design on bone of some sort and then inking it. Now days the only whale items you can get come from collections before the ban on whaling. Thank goodness for the ban, they would also agree, so they use fossil mammoth or walrus husk. The art form sounds easy enough but it requires special tools, one of which is a large magnifier as the designs are smaller and intricate. It is time consuming and the results are fabulous.
It is a very special art form from the past. I am so glad our friend Brandon and his dad are helping to keeping it alive.
Brandon brought a piece that he intends to give to a friend and asked me to make it into a pendant. I really have only one style – rustic and non-traditional but I gave it a whirl and this is what I came up with-most of all notice the detail in the scrimshaw:
As usual, I thought of other ways to do this after the fact. But that is what art is all about…isn’t it?
