October 14, 2018 Mark 10:17-31 It feels odd to say this out loud, but lately I’ve been trying my hand at whittling. It started a few years back when my son was in Cub Scouts and got his whittling badge. At first, I was opposed to the idea of giving my 10 year old a sharp and potentially life-threatening weapon. But the group started out carving soap with plastic knives and learned all the important rules - carve away from your body, make sure no one is in your “blood circle”, close the knife when you aren’t using it. Miraculously, the new knife led to no blood shed. So soon my husband and daughters got into the action, sitting on the porch -- blood circle distance apart -- leaving curls of wood at their feet. It all seemed a little silly and old-fashioned to me. But then one day, out of curiosity, I tried it too. And there was something really refreshing about taking something knobby and rough and making it smooth. There was something meditative about slowly whittling a