You start with a pattern, the exact representation of what you want to create.
Next, you take molding flasks, a top and bottom, (cope and drag); these will allow the molding sand to be pressed, squeezed with great force against the pattern.
The molding sand looks like dirt, but it’s really silica sand mixed with clay, water, and a few other ingredients. It can’t be too wet or you’ll have real problems when the molten iron is poured into the mold. Too dry, it will wash away as the iron flows, thus ruining the casting.
After the sand is pressed against the pattern, and a pouring hole (sprue) has been cut into the mold, the pattern is removed. Then the two halves of the mold are carefully placed back together.
Add some weight to the top of the mold, if needed.
Ready to create!
We were created in the image of God to be an exact representation, thought, word, and deed. Could it be, when God said ,”Let Us make man in Our image”, that the Son was the pattern? Picture the Father reach down, grab the molding sand, press it against the Pattern, then remove the Pattern and breathe into the mold His creative life.
And man became a living soul.
Even though that image was marred through Adam’s disobedience, Father God allowed His Son to, once and for all, be the Pattern of His new creation.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
My how we, even as new creations in Christ (Christians), spend so much time making sure the molding sand is taken care of. But it’s just a temporary thing. There’s a new creation on the inside.
By the way; though our outward man is perishing, our inward man is being renewed daily (2 Cor. 4). And this molding sand that is holding the new creation inside will be removed some day. The image on the inside will be all that’s left.
It’s time to be more aware of the inward man than the outward. It’s time to, while still in this sand, let Father lead us by His Spirit that’s within us. To grow up into Him, in all things, unto the stature of the fullness of Christ…
…and make certain you look like the Pattern when the dirt falls off.
Copyright 2012 Jan Grace
Jan Grace 