Tools of the trade. Tools to work beauty, tools to bring purpose, tools to design an art. These are the tools of the carpenter. As long as there have been wood and man, there have been carpenters and, I am sure, tools of some sort. Carpenters don clothes dusty with wood shavings, nurse hands blistered and callused, and stretch their backs, weary from the long hours standing before their work.
Good carpenters are perfectionists, measuring twice, cutting once.
Skilled carpenters are problem solvers, knowing that anything can be fixed. Gifted carpenters are artists, understanding that their work can be both functional and pleasing to the eye. Learning the trade Carpentry, one of the oldest professions on earth, is the act of building from nature's materials or repairing something already used and broken. No wonder God wisely chose a carpenter's home in which to place His most beloved Son, the builder and repairer of our lives. Jesus, the firstborn, would of course learn the trade of His earthly father.