If you've never seen it, it's difficult to imagine.

If you've seen it, I'll venture you did a double-take.

I vividly recall from my childhood an older gentleman standing outside of the church building, before and after worship, whittling as he visited. He manipulated his knife with the casual ease and speed a woman of his generation might have used to wield her knitting needles.

He used his blade to transform a one inch by one inch by eight foot piece of pine into a chain fashioned of loose wooden links.

One length of the wood was rigid; the other length was limp and its links shook with each cut of the knife.

The incongruity of the two extremities of the wood--a work in progress: one end unyielding, one end flexible--was astonishing. To this day that distant image is a metaphor for Paul's declaration to the Corinthians, "But we all...are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). Moving from unyielding to flexible, "from glory to glory"--that is, incrementally, one link at a time.  

"For we are God's handiwork--his workmanship, his creation, his masterpiece--created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

Imagine the Father carving, transforming, you. Can you visualize his handiwork? Explore the depth of the metaphor. What comes up for you?

Where's the irony--in terms of metaphor--in that the wood, as it moves from unyielding to flexible, forms a chain?

What are some of the defining moments the many links of your chain might represent as God has transformed you incrementally, or, "from glory to glory"?