Creation and the Letter C
Creeks,Cristophanies,and Crescent Wrenches
Welcome back to The Workbox! This week we are tackling the letter C. If you have not read A or B then I encourage you to read those. Letter A has a complete outline of the format and goals that The Workbox is working towards. As a quick reminder of those goals, The Workbox plans to improve the overall quality of content, consistency, and polish my writing skills.
Creeks
Creeks are a great place to make memories. I recently have been making several wonderful ones with my family. A few weeks ago, we took our son to one for his first creek experience. He probably will not remember it, but we hopefully will, and if not, then we have pictures to help us. When my wife and I were dating the first time I visited her family we went to a creek.
I have several more memories associated with creeks, from crawling up narrow shallow creek beds at 3am with a best friend to creek fishing at 2am with my brother. There are an untold number of creeks here in Missouri, each with their own little story of meandering through their worlds. They welcome any visitor and are capable of providing any amount of entertainment. One just needs to know how to watch and participate in their watery merriment
.What are some memories you have with creeks? Do you have a creek nearby? If so, what is the name of it? Around my city, there are many many creeks. The naming of creeks is a fun exploration all its own. Around here there is Hominy Creek, Hinkson Creek, Grindstone Creek, and the list goes on. Living just off the Missouri River has its benefits for a connoisseur of creeks. Not that I am one, but I know one.
Have you been to the creek?
To hear the bends and the trees creak?
Always on the move yet remaining in place
Creeks have arms and legs but not a face
Standing or flowing they have two directions
and teeming with life upon closer inspection.
Cristophany
A Cristophany is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament (OT). There are several places within the OT where we believe Christ has shown himself to his people. Christ typically is referred to as the "Angel of the Lord," but this angel is worthy of worship and somewhere within the passage the angel speaking becomes God speaking. This angel is unlike the typical angels we see in the OT. They are bringing messages from God and are never speaking as God, they are speaking the words of God, but not as God himself. The Angel of the Lord, however, does that very thing. He appears as an angel but becomes the LORD speaking. These Cristophanies are confirmed in the New Testament (NT) too. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10.4, says that the Israelites were guided through the wilderness by Christ.
A few more examples of commonly believed Christophanies are Jacob wrestling with God and Abraham being visited by the angels prior to Sodom and Gomorrah. An interesting note about Jacob and his wrestling with God is just before their bout in Genesis 32.24 when he "wrestled with a man until the breaking of day," in Genesis 32.2 he encounters "angels of God" and calls the place "God's camp" or Mahanaim.
The OT has many places where Christ appears as the Angel of the Lord. One could dedicate vast amounts of time to reading through the Scriptures looking for those references. They are a joy to read and kind of mysterious. The Bible Project does a great job of explaining the Angel of the Lord, you can watch it by clicking the video below.
The Crescent Wrench
Invented in 1907 by Crescent Tools, the crescent wrench is an adjustable wrench capable of matching the size of a wide variety of nuts and bolts. This tool is one every homeowner needs to have in their toolbox. They come in an array of different sizes, ranging from 6in all the way to 18in. The typical homeowner can get away with maybe one 6 or 8in wrench, but having two (6in and 10 or 12in) is a safe and sure bet that allows you to tackle any obstacle that your home (or car) may throw at you.
The name crescent wrench has come to be the household name for adjustable wrenches, just like Kleenex has come to be synonymous with facial tissues. The crescent wrench is an adjustable wrench as I said earlier, but having a steel cast one enables it to moonlight as a hammer in a pinch. Charles Lindbergh, who flew the Spirit of St. Louis in 1927, is quoted as saying to have only carried, “gasoline, sandwiches, a bottle of water and a Crescent wrench and pliers.”
The Crescent wrench is made up of several parts. A fixed jaw on the handle, an adjustable jaw, and a worm screw1 to adjust the gap between the two jaws. These three parts make up the wrench and allow for easy adjustability when needed. Overall, the crescent wrench is an essential part of your toolkit that you do not want to neglect. Treated well, this tool can last a long time, because who wants to spend more money on tools!
Local Photography
This picture is a semi-macro shot of a dragonfly, or Anisoptera, on the backyard fence. This picture was taken at dusk in early summer. Here are some interesting facts about dragonflies according to Treehugger.com. Dragonflies can intercept prey in mid-air, and lay their eggs underwater, and live for nearly two years underwater before they molt and metamorph into what we see flying around.
If you missed out on the previous two essays, don't worry! You can find them below or in the archives. This week we finished the letter "C". Stay tuned for next week's essay covering the letter "D". The Workbox is on a journey of making it through the whole alphabet, writing one essay a week all the way to Z.
What in the world is a worm screw? Maybe that could be a topic for “W”