For Wilshire Baptist Church
We have an antique French clock that sits on our bathroom vanity. It keeps imperfect time, but it has a big bright face with pearl inlays in a thick oak case that mimics the shape of a tree so we like having it there. I wind it every Sunday evening along with two other antique clocks and then adjust the time as needed when it sneaks ahead or falls behind.
Lately the clock has taken to stopping for no apparent reason, and I have to open the back, reset the time, and nudge the balance wheel to get it going again. This week when I did that it would tick for maybe 20 seconds and then stop, so we took it to a clock shop for a checkup.
We’ve been to the shop before with another clock, and the repairman, who knows his business well, had my head spinning with details about jewels, balances, movements and escapements. The bottom line is the clock has seen a lot of wear over the years and he wouldn’t know if he could repair it until he got into it. The exploration would cost some money, and if fixable, even more money. There was no pressure to make a decision, so we took the clock home and it’s been tick-tocking as it should.
Sometimes I feel like that old clock: not ticking as accurately as I once did, a little out of balance, behind the times perhaps. But then something happens; something nudges me and I’m running with the best of them. It might be a new experience, a new project, a new opportunity to pursue.
I’ve had some pretty heavy repairs over the past couple of years but the cost in time and energy has been worthwhile. There’ve been some pretty good repair folks working on me that know their business well. And whether they realize it or not, they apprentice under a master craftsman who knows more about time than we can imagine.
Time will tell if the old clock stops again and what we will do: pay to attempt the repair, or trade out the old movement for some modern, battery-powered works. Before we left the shop, we asked about the age of the clock, and the repairman said his best guess is it dates to the 1890s. In this disposable, replaceable age, some things are worth saving and appreciating even if they aren’t performing at their best.