Devotion in Motion: What holds it all together

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  Colossians 1:17 (NIV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”

Glue is a wonderful thing. Even as I type this, there are innumerable things in my life that have been repaired (and are now held together) by glue. A couple of years ago, the side-view mirror of Spencer’s “Ford Focus” got knocked off his car. It was one of those mirrors that you can adjust from in the inside of the vehicle, and we reckoned that it would cost several hundred dollars to have it professionally repaired.

Since it was still hanging by its wires and cables, we figured that we might have shot at fixing it ourselves. We bought a tube of very strong glue at the hardware store, applied it to the broken surfaces, and then applied duct tape to brace it until it dried. The next morning we peeled off the tape, and admired our handiwork. The mirror is still stuck to the car, and it rides up and down the road every day.

The most recent thing that I have fixed with glue is our mailbox, which had fallen off of its pole. On the day I found it broken I was short on time, and I decided that I would make a “temporary” fix. I mixed a tube of epoxy glue with a separate tube of hardener, slapped this on both surfaces, and replaced the mailbox in place on top of its stand.  I figured that this “patch job” might hold it until I could make a more permanent repair. Well, I checked it yesterday, and it shows no sign of coming loose. I think the mailbox is there for good. It is “stuck like glue.”

But, by far the most interesting thing at our house that is held together by glue is our younger son, Seth. When he was in kindergarten, he was swinging from a top locker door at the school where I taught when it slammed closed on his fingers. Inspecting the damage, I thought for sure that he would need stitches. Instead, they super-glued the skin on his fingers back together in the emergency room. Later on that year, Spencer accidentally hit Seth in the nose with a garden shovel. I thought for sure that Seth would need stitches—but once again, the doctors used medical super-glue to close the wound on his nose.

(I’ll never forget Seth’s words to the nurse as she scrubbed his nose with gauze before the glue was applied. He said, “OUCH!! No, no, don’t bother with that. Just leave it.  You don’t have to fix my nose. I don’t need to smell.”)

Glue is remarkable stuff. Epoxy from the hardware store makes a bond that is often stronger than the surface that it is bonding. And that medical glue that they used on Seth didn’t even leave a real scar. It’s great when you find something that holds things together.

Sometimes it seems like the world we watch on the news and the lives of many people around us are falling apart. Did you know that the Scriptures teach that there is Someone who holds all things together? In today’s Bible text (at the top), St. Paul says that  Jesus Christ is preeminent before all things. And the apostle literally says that, “in Him all things hold together.”  Jesus Christ holds everything together.

So, if you’re a bit cracked and broken this week, take heart! Little things can be taken care of with glue. For the bigger things, we can turn to our Saviour.

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad.” He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and has spent the last 25 years being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. (On week days he works at a public school.)  He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 19) and Seth (age 16) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Preacher once fixed the refrigerator shelves with a brand of epoxy known as “Gorilla Glue”.) He would love to hear from you in an email sent to jcash@scott.k12.ms.us.