One of my favorite picture books is Ox Cart Man by Don Hall (illustrated by Barbara Cooney). It depicts the seasonal, artisan productivity of a New England settler family as they work throughout the year to grow, harvest, and create the items they will then drive to town and sell in order to do an even better job at growing, harvesting and creating the following year. The father works all winter splitting shingles and carving a new yoke for a young ox; the son works all winter whittling birch broom handles; the mother and daughter work all winter weaving linen and embroidering it; and they all work together in the spring and summer to make candles, tap maple trees, gather goose feathers, grow turnips, and more. In the fall, they sell their wares, purchase a few new tools (a soup pot, a whittling knife, a needle) and begin the work over again.[1]
Part of what appeals to me so much is the meaningful work that each member of the household has. The daughter embroiders linen, not as a pointless pastime, but as a real way to contribute to the wellbeing of the family; she is providing something that people will find valuable enough to pay for. I have never paid money for a hand-embroidered pillowcase. Spending my money that way would mean a new era in my life with much greater disposable income! And the thought of embroidering my own pillowcases over the winter sounds like a plain old waste of time. On the other hand, a cursory search online reveals that for twenty dollars I can be the proud owner of two machine embroidered pillowcases. Problem solved!
The real problem, though, is not that I want embroidered pillowcases. I want to be able to create, to produce a piece of functional art that fills a need. I want the rhythm of life that flows from that type of work, the community and storytelling that surrounds it, and the satisfaction of completing a useful thing of beauty, marked by humanness.
Wasting Time
Many of these “servile arts,” such as the ones depicted in Ox Cart Man, are now seen as somewhat eccentric hobbies. Unless you are a grandmother (everyone loves a quilting grandma) or running a side business with your hobby, spending your time embroidering, weaving, or candle making can seem almost like an unspoken challenge or brag to your friends and family. It makes others wonder, “How much time do you have on your hands? Don’t you know you can buy those online? It’s the twenty-first century! Who do you think you are?”
If you could argue that knitting sweaters or baking bread saves you money and time, it would be more easily understood—and more widely practiced. It can sometimes save money, depending on the analysis (e.g., are you comparing your breadmaking cost to a loaf of Bunny Bread or to the cost of buying an artisanal sourdough loaf?). But it will almost never save time. Time, we are often reminded, is a precious commodity. We have only so much of it, and using it wisely is a matter of stewardship.
While that reminder is very true, our modern ears automatically apply it with an industrial, productivity mindset. As Christians, we even put a Biblical spin on this productivity mindset, quoting Ephesians 5:15–16: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (ESV). However, Paul is not admonishing the believers to stick closely to their calendars and put extra effort into multitasking and meeting deadlines; he goes on to warn them not to get drunk (Could this be applied to other addictive, mind-altering pastimes? Social media, perhaps?) but to make the best use of the time by expressing gratitude to God in song.
So, we are not to be unwise by wasting our time in a senses-deadening stupor, but Paul’s idea of a wise use of time is drastically different than what we tend to think of as a wise use of our time. In fact, the things Paul instructs us to spend our time on look a lot like art to me—share music and poetry with one another that expresses your thankfulness to God! Of course, singing and making melody is not the only thing Scripture exhorts us to be busy doing; even here in Ephesians Paul hints at the good works that should also occupy our time: “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (verse 21). Nevertheless, producing art certainly seems to be a legitimate way to spend time in a way that pleases the Lord.
Saving Joy
St. Augustine of Hippo begins his De Doctrina Christiana by outlining two ways to interact with things: we can use them, we can enjoy them, or we can do both.[2] For Augustine, the only thing that can be properly enjoyed for its own sake is God Himself. In a rightly ordered life, everything else can be used in pursuit of that enjoyment.
This paradigm can be a rubric for assigning value to pursuits in our own lives—a rubric that extends past the values of timesaving and money-making. Including the servile arts in our modern, industrialized lives may not be inherently useful; but we can use them to enjoy God more. Here are a few examples:
Baking Bread
Abigail Dodds’ book Bread of Life makes this example an easy one to expound on.[3] Dodds uses this book to both reflect on biblical truth and share some great bread recipes. Of course, what is truly satisfying about her writing is not the bread but the meaty ideas about God that she expounds; however, those ideas are savored all the better for having truly understood the process of baking and eating bread. That real, earthy experience helps her readers to internalize truly the truth of Jesus as the Bread of Life. The process of baking bread is not peripheral to the ideas Dodds presents; the real-life bread deepens the mental meat. Bread enfleshes an idea: “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14).
Indeed, bread has a deep literary connection to the Scriptures, not to mention that baking bread provides many opportunities to enjoy God and submit to one another. On a most basic level, baking bread connects people. Since bread is a fairly sophisticated cultural artifact, it takes a certain amount of cultural infrastructure to even produce and process the grain that will become a loaf. Naturally leavened bread also requires a starter culture—something passed down from mother to daughter or passed around from friend to friend. Interestingly, starter cultures take on unique flavors based on the bacteria and yeast available in the surrounding environment; bread takes on a particular flavor that reflects the city or village that produced it. (The lactic acid bacteria, Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis, is named after San Francisco; this bacterium gives sourdough bread made in San Francisco its distinct sour flavor.)
Baking bread certainly takes time; but spending that time can earn you a deeper understanding of the Scriptures, more connection with friends and family members (especially hungry ones), and greater rootedness to the pocket of Creation you bake in.
Growing Flowers
I am not an especially gifted vegetable gardener. My interest tends to peter out in mid-to-late summer—exactly the time when I should be out watering, picking, pruning, and preserving. However, I have found a special joy in growing flowers the past two seasons that far surpasses even a sun-hot cherry tomato bursting on my tongue. Once a flower blooms, it has served its purpose. It produces no edible fruit; beauty is its fruit. Once you have focused your soul-attention on its beauty, you have preserved the harvest. Others might be flash-freezing green beans, but all winter long my flowers “flash upon the inward eye,” reminding me that God chose to create thousands of plants whose great gift is simply beauty. What a good God we serve!
Sewing Clothes
Recently I was sorting through a bag of hand-me-downs given by a friend for my sons; I pulled out a flannel button-down shirt, and she quickly said, “Oh, I’m sorry, you can’t take that one. His grandma made it for him.” It was a fine shirt, though no better than any of the other clothes in the bag. But my friend knew this shirt could not be given away because it embodied the love of a grandmother for her own particular grandson; it was written right there in plaid, grandma-language: “My love covers you.”
Clothes-making was the first act of grace God performed (besides His promise of a Messiah) after man’s sin in the garden. Clothing our loved ones is an especially service-focused art. Of course, we clothe our families everyday with items of varying origin and quality, but it can be an especially tender—even prayerful—act of love to make clothes for loved ones. Our enjoyment of God’s creation in the midst of this art tends to focus our minds on the people He has given us to enjoy, as well as on the sensual pleasures of color and texture.[4] It does not save time or money, but it does save joy and love to pass down to a grandson’s son, comforting others “with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:4).
Conclusion
This essay has been for my own benefit, to remind myself that time-wasting “hobbies” are not a waste at all when pursued for the enjoyment of God. I encourage you to look at your own crafts and artistic pursuits that seem a bit frivolous in a world obsessed with utility: it may be that your time is wasted wisely in enjoyment of your Heavenly Father.
[1] Don Hall, illust. Barbara Cooney, Ox Cart Man (New York: Puffin Books, 1983).
[2] Saint Augustine, On Christian Teaching, trans. R. P. H. Green (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 9.
[3] Abigail Dodds, Bread of Life: Savoring the All-Satisfying Goodness of Jesus Through the Art of Bread Making (Wheaton: Crossway, 2021).
[4] I did enjoy God’s magical world of physics one day when I got stuck on what I assumed would be a simple headband sewing project; leaving a turning hole in the wrong place somehow sucked my headband into a wormhole and left me with a very strange, lumpy tube instead!
September 2, 2024
Excellent reflection. Redeeming the time goes so much further than seeing how full we can cram the calendar before it all melts down. The activities you mention are terrific. One could create a different set for people in different circumstances. But I take your point to be: use our time to engage in activities that will make us better people, better servants, and better followers of Christ. Redeeming the time in ways that further our own redemption.
September 12, 2024
Thank you for your comment, Allan. Yes, there are many different ways to apply this principle. I spoke to someone recently who takes walks; a couple at a church I attended in the past had wonderful skills in weaving and pottery that they used to bless others. In a way, it all goes back to Colossians 3:17!