The Rusty Nail
After months of asking, I finally decided to repair the roof on my
mother-in-laws patio. We made a material list and my wife came with me to the
large hardware and lumber store to buy the supplies.
In order to repair the roof I would need two-by-fours about fourteen feet in
length. I purchased these, along with the other supplies we needed and pushed
the cart out to my pickup truck.
As we left the store I noticed a large, rusty, roofing nail on the parking lot.
Since I was pushing the cart I asked my wife to pick it up in order to prevent
someone from having to repair a flat tire.
I loaded the material into the truck and proceeded to strap down the
two-by-fours on the roll bar. But I had difficulty in securing the long
two-by-fours. It seemed that no matter how I tied the boards down they would
slip, length-wise, through the straps. After several attempts at different
methods frustration began to set in. I realized that if I put a nail through the
strap and into the two-by-fours they would not slip.
I began to go through my truck looking for a nail, any nail. I looked in my
toolbox and glove box and behind the seat. I looked everywhere and did not find
a single nail, which is unusual because I am always doing something that
requires a nail and always seem to have some around.
Frustration crept in, and then as my anger peaked I remembered that my wife had
a nail. The roofing nail she picked up would work just fine. It was old and
rusted and slightly bent, but that did not prevent it from doing the job. In
just a few seconds the nail was driven in and the boards were secure. Without
complications, without trials, without the fanfare of problem solving, with just
a few short strokes of a hammer and my problems were solved.
As we drove home I was a little quite, being that I had embarrassed myself with
my frustration and anger. It was then that I realized what God was saying to me.
God had supplied my needs as we left the store. He supplied my needs that day as
my wife picked up that rusty nail. Before I even knew I needed a nail, God
supplied it. Even with a store, just a few feet away, full of nails that I could
have purchased, God decided to freely give what I needed, one rusty nail.
Living in the richest nation on earth with all of the resources available, with
all the churches and places of worship available to me, God chose to supply my
needs two thousand years ago, with three rusty nails. When Jesus freely gave up
His life on the cross He supplied everything I would ever need. With three rusty
nails, used and slightly bent: with a few strokes of a hammer, and in the
fullness of time, the God of the universe opened up the supply house of heaven
and pored out His grace and love upon a lost an dying world.
For a time I saved the nail in my wife's china hutch. The nail was not some icon
but merely a reminder of God's provision for me. It is to my shame that God
should need to remind me in such a way of His promises. It is to my shame that
God would need to remind me of the greatest experience of my life, Meeting
Jesus.
I learned as a child that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever Believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life." (John 3:16) I serve a loving and giving Father. Together, with the tools
and material He has supplied, His Church will accomplish His will. All praise
and glory belong unto Him forever.
Bruce R Wolf brwolf@internet8.net
Chaplain Little Calliou
Vol. Fire Department Chauvin Louisiana