Meet one of our Piecemakers Village vendors...
Buried deep within the heart of man is a talent planted
there by God Himself. Seeing as how our life unfolds like chapters in a
book, the talent sometimes lies dormant through many chapters before coming
into fruition. And sad to say, in our modern civilization we are sometimes
too educated to ever find that talent. Our talent, when discovered and used,
provides a livelihood and brings satisfaction to the user. The talent may
be as significant as Edison, who at a young age found his calling, or it
may be a bellhop carrying out his calling doing the same thing day after
day, but the job is new and fresh every day for it is what he is called to
do. Striving and searching ceases when we are carrying out God's will for
our life.
So it is with Jim Matthews. I got acquainted with Jim's
birdhouses quite some time before I met the artist. The birdhouses were
so unique, so perfectly constructed, so quaint. Then one day busily displaying
his artistry was the artist himself. As it turns out, his life is just as
unique as his birdhouses.
Born in Pasadena, California, of a simple family, his heritage
comes from his forefathers who forged the fabric of our country with hard
work, hard times, calloused hands and a big heart. His father taught him
the skills of blacksmithing and putting pieces of wood together to form a
piece of furniture. Working with his hands brought satisfaction and fulfillment.
His boyhood was spent in the beautiful foothills of the
San Gabriel mountains in the city of Arcadia. Although he attended college
he soon found working with one's head brought not the same fulfillment as
working with one's hands.
The chapter of his youth was closing when at twenty-one
he met and married Betty Skinner. Betty and her daughter Lorna not only
opened up his heart but gave him a sense of responsibility; of loving and
caring for a ready-made family. Lorna was cared for as if his own. The
year was 1961. It was the decade of the sixties and the world was being
shaken. Things that seemed to fit together and work were now outdated.
The winds of change were blowing upon everyone's life. Although the retail
business took care of Jim and his family which now included two sons, Craig
and Brian, this chapter was one that had fulfilled its purpose and was closing.
Divorce, even when compatible, is a time of rolling with
the punches and growing out of a stale shell, or it is a time of stagnation
and bitterness. Being a husband and dad had created a new Jim from the Jim
of his youth but that chapter was over, and the shell seemed restricting.
Change is always scary. How much easier it would be to go on with the
"same old, same old". So Jim took the brave step of walking out of his marriage
of twenty-five years.
In reflecting on one's life we see where security can be
a comfortable trap. The corporation where Jim worked was family - a family
who watched out for one another and took care of one another. The security
was too comfortable to think of tapping the talent God had hidden in his
heart. A member of the corporation family was a lovely young woman by the
name of Linda. Fresh, wholesome and friendly, Jim's relationship from the
beginning was a secretary boss relation which blossomed into a rich love.
They had mutual likes. Life took on a new meaning. The pain of closing
the last chapter was over and life seemed such that he hoped it would never
end.
The long, comfortable chapter of being taken care of by
a corporation came to an abrupt end when on December 21, 1991, Jim's world
came to an end with the news that the president and vice president, Donald
Kaufman and Suzy Satow, were killed in a plane crash.
God has a way of kicking his people out of the nest of
comfort forcing them to tap resources still unknown. With the company closing,
Jim and Linda married and began a journey into the world of creativity.
Becoming an entrepreneur was the farthest from Jim's mind.
But remembering what his father taught him and recalling the satisfaction
gotten from creating with his hands, he and Linda launched out on a journey
as exciting and as adventuresome as Shackleton conquering the perils of Antarctica.
No corporation to pick them up if they fell. No guaranteed salary, no insurance
- they ventured into an unknown world.
Jim started by building a birdhouse here and a birdhouse
there - mostly for friends. You can usually tell when an article's time
has come by the demand of the people who see your product. Little by little
people were wanting the birdhouses Jim built. Jim would build and Linda
would paint, and the new adventure was exhilarating and monetarily satisfying.
The old saying goes, "All good things must come to an end".
And so his life with Linda was all too short and too final. She died in
1998. With broken heart Jim continued to build his birdhouses - now alone.
People from all over the country are beginning to send
in orders for Jim's birdhouses.
With the loss of Linda a door closed to his life that will
be forever etched upon his heart. The building of his birdhouses sustained
through the sorrowful months that followed her death. Jim found that God
is not only God of the good times but a comfort in the times of sorrow.
Each day brings new ideas, new friends and new hopes for
the talent planted in Jim's heart, fostered by his dad and brought to fruition
by Jim himself. He looks to the future with a grateful heart. The sorrows
and obstacles have indeed made him a man who does not fear tomorrow - who
rests in that quiet faith that is the fruit of overcoming tragedy, of raising
a family, of falling in and out of love, and of venturing out and tapping
and bringing forth the talent God has given him that will forge the fabric
of a new America.
|