WOODEN WONDER

When I was a kid, my mom married my step dad and I soon found myself spending a lot of time on his incredible farm, southwest of Alvarado. Back then, that whole area was what we indigenous folk call the boonies. I was scared Big foot or Grandma Moses or what my great grandfather called “Raw head and bloody bones” was going to snatch me out of the shadows and haul me off to the creek bed. Yes, the Brewer was a world class chicken.

At night, hundreds of coyotes would begin to sing a midnight song which I did not not enjoy it all. The dadgum Peacock sounded like a woman yelling for help and the whole place just got spooky to me.

Now Dad’s farm was a lot like the other farms around his place and often those farmers would spend a whole weekend trying to exterminate the local coyote population. In 1972, about a dozen families went to war with the vermin and shot what looked to me upwards to a hundred of these dogs in one grand hunt.

Now as a display of trophy and according to the myth that it would scare off other coyotes, all of those dead animals were nailed to the fence posts on the road. I will never forget trying to count them all as we drove into the farm and the number grew above eighty. -These rotting corpses of fur and teeth attracting a sky full of buzzards in the Texas summer heat. It was a terrible sight and it left quite an impression on me.

I am not six years old anymore and 37 years later, iv shot my own fair share of coyotes but I believe God let that one event make a verdict in me that I couldn't ignore for years to come. There was something disgusting and fascinating at the same time in such a spectacle. A symbol of hatred and triumph over them, nailed to a piece of wood and hung up for everybody to see.

Now I didn't have much between my ears in those days but The Spirit of the Lord touched a little boy’s growing mind and I remember thinking somehow, the sight of that curse being hung up there, reminded me of Jesus hanging on the cross.

I would latter read what Paul said to the Galation church as recorded in chapter three of that book. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

In other words, at the cross Jesus became the curse and it was nailed down and hung up, so that we could be blessed. There is a huge mystery as to how all that works but the picture of this is so striking to me. That what was perfect became sinful and what was blessed became cursed so that a knucklehead named Troy Brewer could stand in a place called perfect and blessed.

There is something horrible and fascinating at the same time about the cross. It truly is a wooden wonder and I say Thank you Jesus for it.

Max Lucado says it this way.

“It rests on the time line of history like a compelling diamond. It’s tragedy summons all that suffer. It’s Absurdity attracts all critics. It’s hope lures all searchers. My what a piece of wood! History has idolized it. And despised it, gold plated it and burned it, worn it and trashed it.
History has done everything to it but ignore it. That’s the one option that the cross does not offer.
No one can ignore it! You can’t ignore a piece of lumber that suspends the greatest claim in history. A crucified carpenter claiming that he is God on earth! The cross. It’ bottom line is sobering: if the account is true, it Is histories hinge. Period. If not it’s histories hoax.”

Troy Pastors Open Door Ministries near Joshua and can be found at www.troybrewer.com or www.opendoorministries.org