So over the course of the last month, I have been very excited about engraving glass, mostly wine bottles. It’s been a lot of work to figure all of it out, but I have been thinking about the potential–the possibilities. And my early efforts have been rewarded far above what I thought was possible.
First, I found two wonderful sources of bottles. I feel that the Lord led me to speak to people, and they were very happy to help. So for now, I have good resources with which to begin.
I have been working out the safety issues: The aluminum gets onto my skin, and is hard to remove. The glass dust hurts my face, and gets into my eyes. I found this out the hard way. The tool is very loud, and so forth. So I began to don various protective equipment, to try to see what works.
I finally had a system that I thought was working, and then, last Wednesday, my tool quit in the middle of carving a rose.
At first, I wasn’t worried. I thought it had overheated, and would just need a fuse. We looked at some “how to” videos and took the tool apart. There was no discernible thermal fuse that we could find. Without totally tearing the cardboard/wire structure apart, we would not be able to fix it, but with it torn apart, how would we get it back into the case and use it?
I carefully put everything back into the body, and prayed. We have no money for a new one, right now, and I am glad. God has a way of showing us things when we listen to His guidance instead of throwing money at the problem.
So I began with thanks for the broken tool. Part of my mind was thinking: “Are you crazy? How is this a good thing?” But the other part was thinking how much I rely on the Lord for the breath in my lungs, for the way He holds everything in place, and arranges meetings for us with other people who help, etc. There must be something good in this as well. So I ignored that voice and continued to praise God.
Later in my devotions, I read Psalm 66:19 – 20: “…God hath heard me, and hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God. . . .”
I reasoned that he must want me to do something else. I checked in with my household, because I do get manic about my projects sometimes, and I let other things go. I began to get things caught up, and planned to focus on using enamel on glass instead. The other nagging thought was that the glass particles I had been breathing were making me congested, and I really did need a break.
This was Wednesday. On Friday, Jim walked in the door after work with a funny look on his face. He told me to call the guys because he had a story to tell us.
He met someone at work, and they got talking about our new ventures. Jim mentioned how I was just getting started with things but my rotary tool had broken, and we couldn’t fix it. The man looked up quickly and said, “Can you wait here for a few minutes?”
He soon returned with this:
He said that he had no use for it, since he had a more powerful tool now. It had just been sitting in his garage, and he was about ready to throw it away. Did Jim think I could use it?
He also offered a word of caution: He said the glass particles are very small and can get into the lungs, where tissue will form around them, and can cause problems later in life. I took this word to heart, because it matched what I had felt the REASON was that God caused my tool to stop working.
48 hours. That’s how long it was between the prayer and the answer. I got it loud and clear. “Don’t stop engraving glass and all that: But don’t mess up your lungs either!”
On top of the superior tool, it came with lots of aluminum oxide tips which are perfect for–wait for it–making marks in glass.
I just want to praise the Lord for his mercy (because I’m so headstrong and will hurt my body to complete a cool project) and for his grace (in giving me a better replacement than the one I had, complete with more needed accessories!)
Isn’t that just exactly like what the Lord always does? He never takes anything away without giving us something better in its place!
The Fullers Four 