Almost All Saved

by John P. Pratt
Sat 11 Apr 2015 pm, 1 Wind (SR), 1 Quickening (Mars), 1 Prime (UV), 1 Birth (M,UM), End Passover (PHC,E), End Transplanting (J)

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[Note: This is a true story which serves as an allegory symbolizing Jesus Christ. It occurred step by step yesterday evening as I installed a window in a cabin being built next to my home. Afterward it was discovered that it happened at a time which was holy on eight sacred calendars. —JPP]

The carpenter hammers nails into place.
Once there was a man doing carpentry work installing a window in a new cabin being built for those who were of one heart and mind with him. The window required 44 nails to secure it in place. He had a box of about 100 shiny new roofing nails for the job. Each of these chosen nails had a big hard head of which it was proud, being its important feature qualifying it for the job. Others were box nails, designed for their strength, and yet others were finishing nails which were humbler, being designed not to be seen.

Many of the nails performed just as the carpenter wished. They remained straight and strong as his pounding hammer humbled them by smashing down on their hard heads. Although the process was painful, they allowed him to take them into their place in the universe as they fulfilled the measure of their creation. As each of the nails was driven into place, it became immersed in a sticky silicone sealant which would seal it into its place in the family of nails around the window. This new translucent coating surrounding their already shiny bodies would serve as a protection to them from future weather.

Some of the nails bent under the force of the hammer. The carpenter didn't wish to lose a single nail so he attempted to straighten out each bent nail by smiting it several times on the side, for which the nail was unprepared. Each such nail felt it was abused and unloved by the carpenter because the other nails were only driven in the manner expected. They did not understand that if the carpenter did not help to straighten them out, they could be cast off forever.

There was only one nail which refused to become straight even with repeated efforts by the carpenter. It seemed to be choosing to be crooked, preferring not to become part of the carpenter's dwelling. The carpenter would not force it to do his will. It was set aside to have its fate determined later.

Other nails when being tapped the first time to get them started in the path refused to submit to the carpenter's will and jumped from his hand, falling into the dirt below. The dirt clung to their sticky coating making them dark and loathsome. They felt that the carpenter, high on the ladder, would never descend and stoop to pick them up in their filthy, fallen state where they found themselves resulting from their choice. To their amazement, the carpenter left the 99 other nails and descended his ladder and picked up each one of these from the dirt. He wiped off all the soil so that they were shiny once again. On the carpenter's next attempt to use them, each was successfully driven into its sure place.

The ladder ascending to the loft window over the sewer pipe pit far below.
While the carpenter was down recovering one fallen nail, the setting sun reflected off another which had previously fallen from a formerly installed window. It was buried so deeply into the dirt that only a part of its head was visible. It was a nail that the carpenter had been unable to find previously, which left it feeling abandoned and lost forever. Now the lost nail rejoiced as the carpenter said, "Because you let even your tiny light so shine, being the light of God's sun reflected in your countenance, it does not matter how filthy the rest of you has become. You were lost but now you are found." The carpenter picked it up, wiped its filth clean and it too found a place in the cabin.

As the sun set the carpenter remembered that he needed one more nail to secure the corner of a window installed earlier on the east side of the loft. It was the smallest but highest window of the cabin, giving light to the most exalted dwelling place therein.

The carpenter took one last nail which had been cleaned up of all its filth. This nail had believed it could never be used at all by the carpenter, having felt so unworthy after having fallen. To its joy, the carpenter carried it step by step up the very highest ladder, and the nail was seated in its exalted place at the chief corner of that window. As the carpenter ascended, he saw that the ladder straddled a deep pit which had been dug for the sewer line. The high point of the cabin was directly above the pit beneath. If one fell from this ladder which led to the highest place, he would fall into the pit.

There was only one nail which had committed the unpardonable sin. It was the one that resisted every attempt of the carpenter to straighten it out after it had been immersed and begun its journey to what should have been its place in his residence. At the end of this last day of installing windows when the time for straightening had past, the carpenter cast this one rebellious nail into the deep abyss. It was the only one not saved to be part of some level in the carpenter's dwelling.