Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. -Psalm 90:12, ESV
I worked this whole week on a Cessna 206 from United Indian Mission. The airplane had a landing mishap and was significantly damaged. It landed short of the runway on rough terrain and crumpled the underside on the rocks. I am working with Josh Adelsberger, one of our supervisors. We have three major phases of repair: the nose, the main landing gear area, and the tail. Right now we are working on the nose. The main structural members (keels) that form the nose bowl go about two feet back into the belly, so all that skin and structure has to be removed to get them out. That’s what I’ve been doing.
The airplane in the condition it came to us (pretty much)
This is my “side job.” We rolled the airframe on its side to make it easier to access the belly.
Working through the floor to remove fasteners in the belly
Airplanes are held together with rivets, so taking them apart means drilling. Lots of drilling. … lots.
When working with a damaged airframe, you quickly see how fragile they can be. It is a bit of a paradox: strength and fragility. The airplane does well what it was designed to do, and rock crawling is not it (to draw from current examples). It reminds me of people. God has made us with incredible strengths and abilities, and we have used them to do great things for good and evil. At the same time, there is a fragility to life that many times catches us off guard. When we come face to face with death, disease, crime, and loss we sometimes crumple to our core. Ultimately, we are unable to stand at all before the awe of God’s power. This is the context in which Moses wrote the Psalm quoted above.
God has a purpose. When we live within that purpose, we do well.
Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. -Psalm 90:12, ESV
2 Comments
Fragile strength is an apt analogy, Brad. This is sermon material. 🙂
really like the analogy of life to this plane.
Thanks,
Tom