A Red Shoe Lace and a Rubber Finger

The earth stood still.

For one awful moment, I thought that the vacuum cleaner was going to ruin my sneaker's red shoe laces! The laces that my dear friend Meredith had given me! The laces that had splashed color so cheerily into my sports experiences! The laces that had turned my five-year-old running shoes into brand-spanking-new pedals of power!

And they were from Meredith; the best part of all.

In other words, they were irreplaceable. In that one horrendous moment, a thought darkened my brain like the inevitability of death. "She will probably never give me red shoe laces again!"

Then the moment passed.

I stopped the vacuum, removing the blood-red lace from the maws of the roaring beast, now silenced. The string was hale and hearty.

And I was very happy.

It's funny how the safety of a shoe lace or the purchase of a rubber finger can mean so much. What about a rubber finger? Well, three years ago I worked for TD Bank as a data entry clerk, mostly in printing and file maintenance.

This was where I discovered the power of the Rubber Finger.

No more slippery finger tips. No more paper cuts. No more painstakingly slow counting of pages. With the mighty Rubber Finger, you can whip through page counting like Thor in a thunderstorm. It is the file maintenance clerk's Hammer of Thor, bow of Robin Hood, and spinach of Popeye the Sailor. (Except you don't eat it.)

But then I left the bank and started Bible school, and my precious Rubber Finger got lost. I didn't think I'd want it again--until I started collating Times of Restoration. Ever since then I don't think a time goes by that I don't wish I had my rubber finger to make the collating go a little faster. No more clumsy fumbling. Just efficiency. Efficiency and ease.

After three years of Bible school, I finally got around to purchasing a whole box of rubber fingers today, and I am unbelievably delighted because of it. It makes me want to start collating Times of Restoration every day just for the pleasure of trying it out again. Quickly my General's brain snaps into outfitting an army of collaters with the mighty Rubber Finger. Because of this outstanding strategy, we will soon cut collating time down by a third. I'm convinced of it.

Two small things: a red shoe lace and a rubber finger. Who would have thought that they could make one so happy? Who would have thought that they'd even matter so much? Think of it; we are complicated human beings, souls created for eternity. We shouldn't even bother with mundane things like shoe laces! The Bible tells us not to look at the things which are seen, but to look at the things which are unseen and eternal. Still, I don't think that means we can't get a little innocent pleasure from seen things. I think that we are actually meant to.

What if many of the seen things are placed there for a reason? What if they're designed to point us beyond them, toward the unseen things?

What if a red shoe lace can point me right back to the heart of God?

I'm not going to try to philosophize much more as I this tongue of my mind flaps "out loud," but thinking about these small things that bring joy has made me realize something. If small things matter to me, a human who was made in the image of God, do you think that small things matter to God?

Somehow, I think the answer is "yes."

 Although a rubber finger doesn't matter in the light of eternity, it matters to me. And if it matters to me, it matters to God. Even though the rubber finger means nothing, just the fact that it matters to God is what matters. He cares about details. Therefore, if you let them, considering seen things can pull you into considering the unseen things, such as the care of God that lasts forever.

And that's something worth pondering.

"Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message." -Malcolm Muggeridge