This week's Theme: God is Able
Day 1: Message in a Bottle
I haven’t a mechanical bone in my body. I am serious. I struggle with the simplest task—removing a vacuum cleaner cannister, expanding and collapsing a laundry drying rack, changing the bulb in a flashlight, putting back the safety sleeve on a knife, zester, vegetable peeler, pair of tweezers …
Laugh if you will, but the struggle is real! So recently when I tried to unclog a spray bottle, it didn’t end so well…
In the first place it probably wasn’t a good idea to put a few crushed cloves in my Do It Yourself (DIY) cleaning solution, but I was on a mission to create a “Keep Out!” barrier for the ever-expanding spider-colonies of early spring and summer. I couldn’t find the clove oil I was sure I had bought, hence, DIY Step Two—crushed cloves.
I tried to unclog the now non-functioning spray nozzle with a toothpick, but to no avail. Then came the “bright idea”—cut off the tip of the inside conveyor to expand the hole! However, when I saw the small spring bounding across the countertop, I knew it was over. But wait, perhaps that extra piece was not really needed in the nozzle....alas, no deal.
My "inabilities" are miniscule compared to what many others have to deal with, but they can cause frustration and time-loss in areas of daily function. Trite as it may seem to some, I have learned to bring these limitations and their frustrating results to God. So I prayed, “Lord, please, I need help to make this work!”
Yes, skeptic, I believe that the God of the universe, the One who created stars, galaxies, feathers, and blossoms alike, is interested in all the details of His children. After all, He wired me, and He knows all the spray nozzles that loom like Everest in my path.
I suddenly remembered a nearly empty spray bottle lodged with my cleaning supplies. "Hydrogen Peroxide", I made out on the home-made label as I fished it out. It was just about empty. All I had to do was swap out the cap with its attached conveyor tube...
I unscrewed the cap, expecting it to be the same as the other bottle. It wasn’t. The nozzle was a different design and the conveyor tube that went to the bottom of the bottle was much wider. Wide enough to accommodate crushed cloves. The tube was a little longer than the one in my original bottle, but with slight pressure it fit, and I was able to close the bottle. And then, voilà! Glorious vinegar-clove-peppermint water streamed out as I pressed the nozzle.
Suddenly a thought hit me, and I laughed outright. I realized I had just been given a neat, handy object lesson that had everything and nothing to do with nozzles and tubes and cloves and clogs.
A short time earlier I had been praying about a monumental need for a loved one. And I had taken the opportunity to "remind the Lord" of a few monumental needs of my own.
As I “prescribed” the answers I was seeking, I felt in my spirit a gentle but distinct reminder that I didn’t need to tell God how to answer my prayers. He could do exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20 – NKJV).
But just in case I didn’t "get it", I was presented with an object less—er—message in a bottle: God is not limited by my vision, my abilities, or the shape and size of my current “nozzle”. He is able to reengineer, redesign, rebuild, and redress every entrance, every exit, and every obstruction.
God is able to move every mountain. Including our Everests. Whether they are capped with snow or clove-clogged nozzles!
