%20(1)%20(1).png)
Encourage Design Before Build
In my previous post, I discussed the concept of spiritual gifts. Children with the gift of craftsmanship need to be nurtured along the way to develop particular skills by being exposed to different aspects of craftsmanship. In this post, I'll talk about a key component of craftmanship: designing something before building.
A great example of designing before building comes from Exodus 35:30-35 KJV
"30 Then Moses said to the people of Israel, “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, 32 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold and silver and bronze, 33 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, for work in every skilled craft. 34 And he has inspired him to teach both him and Oholiab the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. 35 He has filled them with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, or by a weaver—by any sort of workman or skilled designer. as craftsmen and as designers."
As you can see, Bezalel was the craftsman of the Tabernacle and all its accessories. While I didn’t remember his name, I can honestly say that this was one of the few sermons I remember from Sunday morning as a kid. Our more academic pastor brought several “Artifacts” as visual aids for this sermon, and I remember being in awe of how hard it would have been to make them with the primitive tools of the day.
That said, as I was reading these passages as a trained engineer, the fact that God filled him with skill, intelligence, knowledge, and craftsmanship amazed me. Especially the part about artistic designs. For whatever reason I never put it together that out in the wilderness, a craftsman like Bezalel had to be very hard-pressed to design anything with just charcoal and animal skins to work with for design tools. In my mind, I imagined it was a lot of whittling or hammering until things looked right. But that’s not what it says. It’s clear he devised artistic designs while traveling for years across the desert from one encampment to another.
So, let’s talk about some of the things he designed.
The Bronze Altar
"And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass." - Exodus 27:1-8 King James Version (KJV)
When I speak on this topic in person I usually have everyone take a minute and try to draw this out as a practical exercise in designing before building. It's helpful when working through scripture with a technical child to give them something to keep their hands busy. Providing pencil and paper to follow along with thier skill while you read is an expellent way to connect God's word with their skill.
As a kid I was captivated by the depiction of the Ark of the Covenant in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. In the movie it was so complex and intricate, I always thought that was a bit made up for Hollywood. As an adult I realized just how much detail the Bible provided on exactly what the Ark should be
10 And they shall make an ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
11 And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.
12 And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it and put them in the four corners thereof; and two rings shall be in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
13 And thou shalt make staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
14 And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.
15 The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.
16 And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
17 And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
18 And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.
19 And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.
20 And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
21 And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. - Exodus 25:10-22 King James Version (KJV)
I genuinely believe under the wilderness circumstances these plans needed God’s divine assistance to get to that level of detail to make these things.
The main point I want to make for your technical child is that you should be encouraging design before build. In my time I’ve done a lot of “barnyard carpentry” as my dad used to call it. Just kind of hacking around with the materials on hand until I got something workable. That can be fun, but it tends to be wasteful of materials and often runs into dead ends that force you to start over from the beginning.
Jesus actually warned us about that approach in Luke 24:8
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you.” King James Version (KJV)
Helping your child see that plan… then build is key to helping them develop their skills is a first step in aligning their talents with God’s word. This can start at an early age. One of my favorite scenes in the Lego movie is the crayon drawings of the plan to save the world. A plan doesn’t have to be super high fidelity to be a credible plan. I suspect that if you do the Altar exercise with your younger children, they could manage a crayon drawing and use some basic building blocks to build that design.
Speaking of building blocks, Legos are a favorite of the technical child. As they get older software like Brick Link Studio is a great way to design before building. It can be a lot of fun to put together a plan on the computer and translate it into reality with their Lego collection.
For teens, you can look into something more advanced like computer-aided design software such as Solidworks. The kids in my robotics club were mastering the art of building mechanical parts in Solidworks as young as 13 and it was practice with design before build that got my son a job in high school as a makerspace and later as a design engineer at 19. So being intentional about the connection to God’s word has lifelong practical implications for your child.
In my next blog post, I’ll discuss ways to start engaging your child’s gifting with examples from God’s word about perseverance.
Comments