"Most of us had a hard time learning to tie our shoes. Squirting toothpaste on a brush was tough enough, but tightening shoes by wrapping strings together? Nothing easy about that. Besides, who needs them? Wear loafers. Go barefoot. Who came up with the idea for shoes anyhow? And knees don't help. Always in your face. leaning around them, pushing them away--a person can't concentrate. And, oh, the advice! Everyone had a different approach. 'Make a tree with the loop, and let the squirrel run around it into the hole.' 'Shape a rabbit ear, and then wrap it with a ribbon.' Dad said, 'Go fast.' Your uncle said to take your time. Can't anyone agree? Only on one thing. You need to know how.
Learning to tie your shoes is a rite of passage. Right in there with first grade and first bike is first shoe tying. But, oh, how dreadful is the process. Just when you think you've made the loops and circled the tree...you get a knot. Unbeknownst to you, you've just been inducted into reality.
My friend Roy used to sit in a park bench for a few minutes each morning. He liked to watch the kids gather and play at the bus stop. One day he noticed a little fellow, maybe five or six years of age, struggling to board the bus. While others were climbing on, he was leaning down, frantically trying to disentangle a knotted shoestring. He grew more anxious by the moment, frantic eyes darting back and forth between the shoe and the ride. All of a sudden it was too late. The door closed. The boy fell back on his haunches and sighed.
That's when he saw Roy. With tear-filled eyes he looked at the man on the bench and asked, 'Do you untie knots?' Jesus loves that request. Life gets tangled. People mess up. You never outgrow the urge to look up and say, 'Help!' Jesus had a way of appearing at such moments. Peter's empty boat. Nicodemus's empty heart. Matthew has a friend issue. A woman has a health issue. Look who shows up.
Jesus, our next door Savior.
'Do you untie knots?'
'Yes.' "
I just love that. I love how it's a simple story about a child being unable to untie the knots in his shoe laces, but it is so applicable to our lives. We get into "knotted" situations all the time. We say the wrong thing, talk when we need to listen, make the wrong choice instead of the right one, and there we are...in a knotted situation. Let's ask Jesus to identify the knots in our lives and untie them. I know I could definitely benefit from a less-knotted life...could you?
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