Hello,
As I write today’s Bungee Cord, I am Denver visiting my eldest son. I drove out here a couple of days ago with my dog, Duncan, making a couple day stop in Davenport, Iowa to visit my folks. It has been a long ride in my car, but with my trusty dog by my side, his head in my lap….it hasn’t been too bad.
My son, who is a graphic designer, has a never ending appetite for adventure and curiosity. He moved out here with no job in hand, but has landed on his feet well in every way. It is always an adventure visiting him, because his creative juices are always stirring, and when we visit we find ourselves caught up in their current. This visit coincides with the building of a tear drop camper from scratch. When he told me of his idea to do this, I mentioned to him that one can get a kit and assemble it. No…no….build it from scratch. And so that is what he has been doing for the last several months.
No kit. No plans! Just build it from scratch. He ordered a trailer that when it came was not built to the specifications that he had expected. He had to do some early modifications. Then he sat down and drew out his design, bought the wood, and started building. Remember, he is a graphic designer, not a carpenter. So, every cut of wood and pounded nail is a bit of an untrodden adventure. Well, at this juncture the side walls have gone up, and we have been placing the flooring on the base. I, too, am not a carpenter. A pastor, I am, so I don’t offer much advice. So, when things don’t fall quite into place as planned, I watch my son’s creative mind take on the next challenge and move on from there. Although I am not certain, I am quite sure that when all is said and done, he will have a fine camper. A camper that he can be proud of. A camper that can be pulled down the road. And a camper that fits his camping needs.
Sometimes I hear people say that when things happen in life, it is all of God’s plan, a plan that God has well drawn out, with specifications where nails are to be pounded and cuts to be made. As I experience the work of God in my life, I don’t see things working quite that way. Instead, I see things working far more in the way that my son is creating his tear drop camper. He knows what it is going to look like, and in the end, it is going to get there. Likewise, I have come to see that God knows what I am going to look like….his child….and in the end, I am going to get there. Because I shift and move, sometimes the nails get put in places that they were not intended, and cuts are made that create difficulties in the building. But because I am the handiwork of a very adept builder, far more adept than my son or me, I am confident that in the end, I will turn out to be what my builder intends me to be, his child.
And maybe even more important, I also have great confidence that no matter how hard the construction might be, and how much fancy work God needs to do on me, he will never come to the point of throwing up his hands, and say, “I give up.” The reason for my confidence is the price that he has paid to build me into his child….the death of his Son, Jesus.
So, when you feel the pain of a nail in the wrong place….or the world has sliced in a very painful and clumsy way….remember, as I do, who the builder is: God Almighty who sent his son to die and rise in order that you and I might be his child. Remember who the builder is and know that even though the nail placement or the cut may not have been made perfectly according to some well drawn out plan, that you and I are the handiwork of a builder who makes right the wrongs so that in the end we will be exactly what he has intended us to be: his children. Children that he is proud of. Children who will make it down life’s road. Children who he will be part of his incarnational adventure to change the world with his love.
Happy camping….have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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