On the Montana farm where I grew up, we named our tools. I’m not sure it was because we didn’t know the names of the wrenches (most people knew them as torque wrenches, allen wrenches, and pipe wrenches), or if it was because of habit.

We also named the quarters of land (160 acres) we called our own. Hoagland’s was named after the man we rented from, and the homestead was where our family farm first started. There were also less creative names: ‘out’ southeast, the north strips, and the 160 acre piece.

Nevertheless, the tools in our shop went by, and not in order:

• Bob, the handheld sledgehammer, which I think was given to my Granddad by Bob Shafter.
• Walt, the drill, either because we found it near Walt Munson’s place, or because the three quarter inch electric drill just looked like a “Walt” (well, before dewalt was thought of).
• Fred, a ball peen hammer, was blacksmithed by Fred Hotel. In my youth spent on the Montana plains, helping my family farm the dry land crops, I was under the distinct belief that Fred was Jesus Christ.

The reason for associating Fred and Jesus Christ, at least for a grade school kid spending his summers on the family farm helping Grandpops, seemed simple enough at the time. Every time he, David Tested, would hit the side of a combine, tractor, or grain auger with Fred the hammer, my granddad would yell out “Jesus Christ.”

I now had a clear view of the church and its main character, Jesus Christ, first hand in my granddad’s school of hard knocks.

Much to my surprise (or chagrin), 30 years later, I discovered who Jesus Christ really is. It’s not Fred the hammer. The man who gave up his life for our sins is Jesus Christ.

John 3:16 says, “For God loved us so much that he gave up his only son so our sins could be forgiven.”

Strange that it took me so long to discover the difference between the hammer and the cross. I love my granddad for teaching me that Jesus lives and, without his message, I would not have sought out to search for the man that Fred could never be.

However you find the difference between the hammer and the cross, I encourage you to seek, knock, and ask. Jesus is waiting. Nothing happens by accident; not even the hammer and the cross.

Amen