VENDORS COMING SOON

We've moved from retailing products via market stalls to selling through local vendors. Watch this space for a list of local businesses where you can get our recycled timber products!

ANAKAINO: The Meaning

My name is Nathanael, and ANAKAINO combines two of my passions- giving new life to timber which might otherwise be thrown away as rubbish, and exploring the theological reality of how God does the same thing in people.

ANAKAINO is the English transliteration of the Greek ανακαινοω, a compound of ανα (up, completing a process) and καινοω (new, qualitatively new). This word carries a particular nuance: It does not mean to simply make a new thing, or to restore something to its original state. It means to renew something to a higher and better state than it was before.

It is used in 2 Corinthians 4:16, as an encouragement to not lose heart when confronted by our physical frailty, because inwardly we are being ανακαινοω. And it is used in Colossians 3:10, to encourage believers to throw away the old self, seen in things like anger, malice, and lying, and to instead put on the new self- which is being ανακαινοω to be more like Jesus.

As ANAKAINO, I reclaim and recycle timber, something which I learnt from 5 years working in a business recycling timber fencing before moving to Brisbane in 2017. Since then, I've been expanding my skills and am now comfortable selling my work.

I enjoy taking pieces of timber which are seen as rubbish and turning them into something useful. And it wasn't difficult to see the parallel between that and my Christian faith! Because that is the whole story of the Bible. In the Bible, we read that God made a good, beautiful world, appointing humans to look after it. But the world and the people in it were broken by human sin. You might expect God to simply throw it out and start again, but instead he set in motion a plan to redeem the world, and offer his people renewal- without cost to them. In fact, through his death on the cross Jesus paid the price for the sin of all those who would ever put their faith in him. He died for us, and he defeated death, rising again on the third day. And he promises that all those who put their faith in him will be renewed- in part in this life, and in full in the next. This renewal won't just be a return to what we were originally, but even better. We won't be able to break it this time!

In recycled timber, I see both a symbolic and a practical connection to this reality. Symbolic, in that the renewal of this timber points to the greater personal and cosmic renewal found in Jesus. And practical, because the responsibility that God gave to humans to care for his creation was never taken away. We just REALLY suck at it. And that means that the choices we make around caring for our planet- like reclaiming and recycling instead of dumping and buying new- are worthwhile. They are good and worth doing because they express a desire to live out one of the first responsibilities humanity was given.

In short ANAKAINO defines both what I do with old timber, and what God has done with me.

Contact: nathanael@anakaino.com