"Nails"

On December 6, we continued to "muck" a devestated home--Brett's. Eventually, I was given the task of pulling nails from the studs that had been bared of all sheetrock and insulation. At first, I was somewhat troubled at being given this task--it seemed so trivial! Then I started pulling the nails! Does anyone know how many thousands of nails it takes to put a house together? Well, it takes that many tugs of a hammer to take a house apart. It is also an isolated task--one does not need a helper to pull nails.

Anyway, pulling those nails taught me a valuable lesson. As I stood on the ladder or knelt on the floor pulling nails I was remined of the hope that is usually connected with a simple nail. It is a fastener--a "putter-together", not something that is used to pull things apart. And sitting in this mucked-out room in a house that was no longer a home, it hit me--the nails! Nails were used 2000 years ago for fastening also--but then they were used to fasten our Saviour to a cross. At first glance, to nail a human being to a cross bar of wood seems the very opposite of putting anything together--it is the destruction of a human life. But not in the case of Jesus. Our Lord's nails--just three of them and not thousands--were used to save our world rather than destroy it.

How blessed I felt that I had been asked to do the humble task of pulling nails. Their significance grew with every nail pulled and every nail pulled was a reminder that with Jesus, renewal for everything and everyone is possible. Christ is in the nails.

Blessings, Mary