An Exercise In Musing

muse2 | myo͞oz |
verb [no object]
be absorbed in thought

A person can get absorbed in thought with just about anything. For example, let's get absorbed in thought with an ordinary pencil. A yellow colored wooden pencil with a finely sharpened point at one end, and a red rubber eraser on the other end. To be more specific a number two lead pencil. Just an ordinary pencil. Let's muse about the pencil for a moment.

First, let's think about the origination of the pencil. Somewhere a tree grew. That tree was cut down. Out of the many uses of that tree, someone determined pencils would be made. I do not even dare guess as to the process of converting wood into pencils. I would not even dare propose how many pencils were fabricated out of that tree.

At some factory, the combination of the wood, the lead, and rubber eraser were all attached. In my mind, I can see thousands upon thousands of such pencils fabricated. As far as I can tell, to this point the  little pencil has helped employ the lumberjack who cut the trees, the truck drivers who haul the trees, the person who milled the wood and the person or persons who fabricate the finished product of the pencil.

Then the pencil had to be packaged. Once packaged the pencil, along with other pencils, were boxed for shipping. Someone had to do those jobs. Then the boxes were shipped. Some traveled by train. Some were transported by truck. Some may have even been flown to stores or distribution centers. In each case, someone worked to get the pencil from factory to the intended final destination.

Eventually that box of pencils ended up at a retail store.  A retail store where it was purchased. That means someone else was employed to stock the pencils on the shelves, and a cashier who actually sold the pencil.

In different hands of different people that pencil can have many uses. For the composer, notes will be transcribed along with words to make songs. The student will use the pencil to learn how to write at a young age, or to do complex mathematical equations in later years. The wife might use the pencil to write down a recipe. The administrative assistant might use the pencil to jot down a phone message. That pencil in the hand of a baseball coach might be used to make out the starting line up or for a golfer to keep score. There are many uses for a pencil. The artist might use it to sketch a drawing.

God gave someone the idea to create the pencil. God gave someone the resources to start the businesses to secure the lumber and to build the pencil. Each person, who had a hand in getting the pencil from the forrest, to the factory, to the store and into the consumer's hands, God created. He knows each person by name and personality. He knows everything about them.

It is God who inspires the use of the pencil, whatever shape or form that might take.

All of that from musing about a pencil. One more thing. The pencil we have been musing on does even exist in reality in my life. There is no yellow pencil on my desk. I imagined the whole thing. Every bit invented in the corners of my mind. Why?

To illustrate the power of musing. There are so many simple subjects in this world we take for granted. If we can pause for a few moments and think of all the complexities of a simple ordinary pencil, what about the more complex subjects in life? Subjects like medicine, anatomy, physics, literature, business, economics, politics, philosophy and theology just to name a few.

We can muse about a flower, the sun, a lake, a bird, a dog, a recipe, architecture, marriage, parenting, children, good books, a documentary.... There is no end to musing if we just took a little time each day to exercise the mind and absorb it in deep thought about something good and wholesome. There is plenty of unwholesome things to avoid musing over. Let's stimulate the mind. Let's take in God's creation when we walk outside. Get lost in the chill of the air or warmth of the sun. Let's look with wonder at His creation. Let's read His word with excitement and expectation. Let's enjoy this gift of life while we have it. Musing is one simple way to do just that.

I hope you will remember the lesson of the pencil, and God will use it to inspire you to get absorbed in thought on a number of other subjects.