Still Standing

Still Standing

I don’t typically put furniture together. I’m in no way a spatial thinker. But when one of the bookshelves in my house toppled under its word-filled weight, I bought a new one . . . in a box. It included a daunting number of long and short screws, dowels, cam bolts, cam locks, shelf supports, and various pieces of “wood product”—113 in all. Oh, and a lengthy instruction booklet with these words on page 11: “Feel confident that this will be a fun and rewarding project. The final product will be a quality piece that will go together smoothly and give years of enjoyment.”

I dutifully counted my pieces and parts. I readied the required equipment—a Phillips screwdriver and a hammer. (The hammer I was never instructed to use but assumed later it was to hit myself over the head with in a severe mercy, or to break the entire assembly into splinters in frustration.) I arranged all of this into separate piles on my living room floor, then dove in.

I had to retrace my steps twice, taking apart pieces I had wrongly connected. I cried once. I took a five-minute break, lying in a fetal position on the rug. Three hours later I finished, with no pieces left over (always a good sign). The next morning the bookcase was full of reshelved books, and it is still standing: at least as good as its parts, and better than my skill.

The bookshelf-assembling process reminded me that I, too, am a work in progress: at least as good as my God-designed parts, and even better than the skill of this do-it-yourself assembler. Sometimes the process is anything but “fun and rewarding.” Sometimes I read the instructions and mean well, but I still get things wrong. Sometimes I look at the picture of the end product I’m aiming for (let’s call him Jesus) and find it hard to believe I will ever resemble him. I’m not there yet. There are errant pieces to be secured, tightened down, and locked into place. But today, by the sheer, brilliant, and benevolent work of a good and wise God—I am still standing. And if that isn’t proof of grace, nothing is.

No one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:11