Update: See Joe Carter’s helpful reflections on this.
In 1958 Leonard Read wrote, “I, Pencil,” to illustrate the wonder of the free market—namely, that one person alone could not create the pencils we have, but a thousand people labor and cooperate together to produce a pencil that we can purchase for a a trifling sum.
The video below tells the story well. For those who have eyes to see, it’s also an amazing testimony, I think, to divine providence and as our work as image bearers in reflecting his creativity (even if unwittingly) and having appropriate dominion over creation.
