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My Father's Saw By Hector Earle The feel of it in my hands brought back memories of a hard-working man who cared for his family. It also reminded me of the hope for the future.
t was on the top shelf, hanging from a nail above my workbench -- my father's saw. I brought it home a decade ago, one of a few relics I found in his shed when my sister and I cleaned house shortly after his demise. "My old bucksaw," he used to say. "Best thing for sawing up slabs." I reached up, brought the old saw down and touched the thin serrated blade. Still sharp. Oh, how I still remember the sound of that back-and-forth movement. Fighting back the tears, I laid it down on the workbench and reflected on the memories hidden inside this simple tool of my father.
Many frosty evenings, as I held those slabs tightly against that old wood horse, I was given some nugget of truth as I watched the junks fall upon the frosty ground. "Hard work will never hurt anyone," he would often say as he loaded up my tired arms with kindling, tight to my neck. Yes, he was the epitome of hard work. When it was all said and done, he measured success by the sweat of his brow, whether it was a box full of wood, a full barrel of water or food in the cupboards. Rearing 10 children in an age when money was scarce and materials possessions few was not an easy task. Yet somehow my father saw to it that each of us was well cared for. Our welfare always seemed to be his number one concern.
I used to wonder why my dad never had much time to sit and play with us. All I knew was when I needed something fixed, he found a way to get it done. I used to wonder too why season after season he never took time off. It never occurred to me until later in life that we were the reason. My father was never a church-going man when we were young. He used to say that he didn't need religion, despite my mom's continuous prayers to see him converted. But before he died, dad made his peace with God and repented of his sins.
My thoughts that day were interrupted by my wife's call, "It's supper time." I placed the old relic back in its rightful place above the bench and left the precious memories locked up in my father's saw. "Your eyes are red," she said, as I took my first sip of tea. "A little sawdust in my eyes," I said. To learn about God's plan for all humanity, read our free booklets , and . Copyright 2008 by United Church of God, an International Association All rights reserved. |
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Other Articles by Hector Earle
Origin of article "My Father's Saw"
Keywords: hard work father's example
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