Hello,
How many employees of a hardware store does it take to free a log
splitter from it’s chains?
Five.
If you read the Bungee Cord last week you may remember that I told you
about an emergency generator that we purchased. Well, on the day that we purchased the generator, we also
purchased a log splitter. Sitting
amid a large stand of trees, some of which fall down every year, and having a
fireplace to cut the chill we burn quite a bit of wood. Cutting up the trees and hauling the
logs around is a good workout, leaving a much too sedentary 50+ year old like
me with sore muscles for the next day or so. I have tried splitting the logs by hand only to find out
that it far exceeds the level of work that I aspire to. So, driven by a combination of waning
strength and aging laziness, we decided that we should invest in a log
splitter.
If you have never seen one of these devices, what they amount to is a
large wedge that is hydraulically driven into the log so that the log splits
apart as it pushes its way through.
Sometimes the force of the wedge snaps the log apart, and other times it
sort of creeks the log apart like a slowly opening door. But either way, it does so with wondrously little human
effort. All a person needs to do
is place the log on the splitter and pull the lever.
Anyway, after we brought both the generator and the log splitter home,
we discovered that we could not get the log splitter started. We pulled and pulled and the engine
just would not start, rendering us weary from pulling and the log splitter of
no use. So, we called the hardware
store from which we had purchased it, and they said, “Ok. We have another one here. Just bring it back and we will give you
the other one.”
On Saturday, we hitched the log splitter to the back of my pick up and
wheeled in into the store to get our replacement. True to their word, they did the paperwork and said, “Just
wait here, I’ll get someone to get
you the log splitter.” Soon a
middle aged man and a hefty young man appeared….but no log splitter. When they saw the curious look on our
faces, they said, “Follow us. It’s
outside.” And sure enough it was;
secured to a brick wall by a chain, and locked onto that chain with a lock the
size of a softball. As we were
examining the log splitter and making sure it would start, a young woman in her
hardware uniform came out with a ring of keys saying, “I know that it is one of
these.” The older gentleman took
the key ring from her and started placing one key after another in the lock,
with no response from the lock.
After making several revolutions around the key ring, he handed it over to the younger guy saying, “Here,
you give it a try.” No luck. Someone must have called in for
reinforcements, because just then two brawny guys in their hardware store
uniforms walked out the door to free the log splitter from its chains. One of the guys had biceps larger than
my legs and walked with his arms angled at his elbows. The other guy was not as muscularly
massive, but he certainly had spent plenty of time in a weight room, too. But even they could not produce freedom
for our log splitter.
So there we were standing around that chained log splitter with five
hardware store employees unable to unbind the machine. I don’t know how much time elapsed, but
I don’t think that a half our would be an exaggeration. Having had enough of the cold, we told
the employees that we had other errands to run, and we’d be back in a while to
see if they had made any progress.
Thankfully, when we returned, the mission was accomplished. We didn’t ask how they did it, or how
many more people it took to open that lock. But this we do know.
It took at least 5 hardware store employees to free that log splitter
from its chains.
By the way. How many people
does it take to free you from the chains of your sins, from the shackles of
sadness, from the lock of despair?
Only one….only one if that one is the Son of God. And that one has done what no five
people…or even an army of people could do. When he hung on the cross he locked himself in a battle to
the death with everything that would chain us down, and when he walked out of
that Easter tomb he broke open every lock, even the lock of death, so that we
would never be locked down again.
It
only takes one person, if that person is Jesus, to free us from our
chains. And because Jesus has done
just that, we close everyone one of our worship services with a declaration of
our freedom, “Go in peace. Serve
the Lord.”
To which we all respond, “Thanks be to God!”
Have a great week.
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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