Saturday, November 29, 2008

Broken Things to Mend

In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth
And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.
The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plough, or yoke,
Said, "Can you mend it, Carpenter?"
And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.
So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:
"O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that's broken past repair,
This life, that's shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?"
And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation-"all things new."
"The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!"
- George Blair

I've been reading Elder Holland's book, "Broken Things to Mend," and it's amazing. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for an awesome book to read. I think we've all felt like that broken thing to mend at times and the Master Carpenter has entered our lives and like it says in the poem, his life is woven through our broken lives and then we stand a new creation.

5 comments:

Kara Welker said...

I just bought that book about two weeks ago I'm so excited to read it! I am reading the Inevitable Apostasy right now, I highly recommend it as well!!

Em said...

When you came home for Thanksgiving, Mom saw that you had that book and said she had been wanting to read it. You'll have to let me read it when you're done. It sounds awesome.

The Wageman Clan said...

Thanks for the uplifting blog as usual. I'm glad your Utes won!

Melanie said...

Hey Shane! I didn't know you had a blog. I'm glad I found it. It's good to see what you are up to these days.

emily said...

Yay! I got this for Michael for Christmas! I'm glad you like it.