Each piece of wood represents a life story. God first created the tree, with a specific type of wood, hardness, leaf shape, color, bark, and fruit or seed. The tree grew and developed over many years. The thicker rings between the grain lines reflect good years with lots of growth. Narrow spans between grain lines represent years of struggle and little growth. A mixture of features are often present in the wood, and they show where branches existed, insect activity occurred, disease visited, or some other stressor affected the life of the tree. This piece of wood tells a story of God’s creation, how God formed, molded, and adapted the tree throughout its lifespan, and how God used a person to form it into what it is today. Every piece of wood is completely unique.

Wood is a wonderful metaphor for how God formed each of us. We each are uniquely created by Him and wonderfully formed through life by the experiences and people we encounter; growing and changing as we strive to serve Him in very special ways. We each reflect the fingerprint of our loving, eternal Father, working as God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit within us.