When I was weaving and talking to a group yesterday, one of the people who was listening said, “Wow, you are really a maker!”  He was referring to the maker movement, which is a return to hands-on building in response to an increasingly industrialized age.  A consumer goes to Walmart and buys a rug that looks like millions of other rugs.  A maker weaves her own and has a rug that is unique and individualized.  You can learn more about makers by looking at Make Magazine or going to a Maker Faire.

I have certainly become more of a maker since I retired, creating my own yarn by spinning and rugs by weaving.  But I like to think that, as a pastor, I was also focused on individual and unique experiences of God.

Of course, when we think about makers, we need to think about the Maker of the universe who is also the One who made our hearts and souls.  In my morning devotions, I read Isaiah 44, which talks about the ways people try to craft gods with their own hands.  “The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals.  He shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm.”  “The carpenter takes half of the wood and burns it in the fire; over it he prepares his meal.  From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships.”

Isaiah contrasts these idols, made by human hands, to the one true God who made the human beings who make the idols.  In Isaiah 44 and 45:  “This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer who formed you in the womb:  “I am the Lord, the Maker of all things who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself.”  “I am the Lord and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.”  “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground.”

When we take pride with the things we make with our hands, we need to think of the One who made our hands, our hearts, and our souls.  Can he take pride in us, those he has created?  Are we worshiping things we make with our hands or are we worshiping the One who made us all?

I close with the words to a wonderful worship song called “You’re the Maker of My Heart” by Glad:

“You’re the Maker of my heart ’cause you’ve formed the hearts of all.  And long before I knew you, you were waiting for my call. You’re the author of my life and you know my every part.  It’s so good to know the Maker of my heart!”