Okay, picture this....lazy evening...sitting on the couch....husband asleep..............with TV remote in hand........and of course the station is on a show that I care nothing about!!! Got the visual?? The name of the show is, "How It's Made." I dare not wake the sleeping bear by trying to steal the remote....so I concede, and watch the show.
The topic was shoelaces. I must admit, I have never wondered how they are made...but....It was intriguing. I didn't realize how much work was involved. Watching those machines intertwine the threads in what reminded me of a maypole dance was impressive. The supervisor then began to show the 'most important' part, the aglet. The aglet is the plastic part at the end of the lace. His statement was, "The aglet is the most important part of the lace. Without the aglet, it is almost impossible to insert the laces through the eyelet of the shoe."
Well, that got me to thinking.....I can see all the facets of our lives as all the different colors of the thread, it is on the 'machine' of life, being tightly spun together. Each color has a purpose, each thread is needed. Not only is every thread needed...but each thread is also needed to be of good, consistant quality or the lace will fray. All those threads spun together is very pretty, but is basically useless without the aglet. I see the aglet as the example of salvation....all we have, all we are made of..each fiber, each thread, is incapsulated into the aglet...and now is given direction and the ability to truly work in the way it is intended.
You ever have a shoelace that has lost its aglet?....frustrating to say the least, isn't it? I have twisted the ends, wet them to try to mold them together better...trimmed the ends with scissors...and even taken a match to them to try to melt them together............nothing really works, does it? Such is life....we try to do things our way, try to push through life and hope to make it through........doesn't really work too well. But if we accept Christ into our hearts and let Him lead us, let Him be the 'most important part of our lace...our life," then everything flows much easier through the eyelet of life.
Lord, please help me to stay humble and not let the lace of my life 'fray' so that life becomes so hard and unable to manage. If the aglet falls off and the shoelace comes out, then it is unable to be put back in, and the shoe then flops around and is of no use. Something so small...an aglet....is not out there in the spotlight...but vitally needed. Jesus, you are that perfect gentleman...You often are standing somewhere in the shadows...but so vitally needed in our lives.
What are the conditions of the aglets in your life? Do you step on them without thought? Do you give them no thought, no consideration until they are damaged and now your shoe is not able to function?............funny how something so small can cause such thought, huh?
