There isn't a single human being on planet earth who knows how to make a pencil
That's because Jesus made your pencil.
Every pencil is a miracle.
Every pencil is a miraculous supernatural creation.
The Supernatural Creator is also called "The Invisible Hand of Divine Providence."
I first encountered this thinking in Leonard Read's 1958 essay, "I, Pencil." That essay is well worth your time to read.
I guess I read it some 50 years ago.
I plagiarized Read's essay in order to bring out the connections to a Biblical Worldview:
I created that domain in 2006. I first posted that essay on the internet in 1999:
Read's defense of a "Free Market" was challenged by this blogger:
The blogger's message is that of Barack Obama: "You Didn't Build That. [The government did.]."
But government -- "The State" -- is a "Monopoly of Violence." So if the blogger is correct (and he is), the pencil is a product of violence.
I used to be so proud to be an American, and a proud defender of "the Free Market" that creates pencils for a dime a piece.
Since Leonard Read wrote his essay, the federal government of the United States has murdered, maimed, or made homeless tens of millions of innocent non-combatant non-white civilians around the world.
When I first became old enough to vote, I voted for candidates who promised to kill people. They didn't say that, of course. They spoke of "protecting U.S. interests abroad." I fell for that. I was a victim of educational malpractice. (In 2008 I thought about creating a program to help victims like myself.
More recently, an angry, woke, vulgar leftist named Kevin Carson has expanded the thoughts of that blogger above and further elaborated on the violence behind the pencil, criticizing Leonard Read's naive support for "the Free Market":
That essay is very challenging. Read it if you dare. (Especially if you've already read Leonard Read's essay.)
While reading this essay, I was reminded of the quote from Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler:
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
These are the corporate forces behind the pencil, and the U.S. military is behind the corporations.
Kevin Carson speaks of this as "The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand." [audio]
So now I'm rethinking my proposed marketing slogan, "Jesus Made Your Pencil."
I need to add a little nuance to that.
Life is more complicated than I used to think.
Tyrants and the Invisible Hand