Devotionals

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Shrink–Wrapped Life

It is sometimes very strange where we might find analogies of life and faith. For instance, the other day after coming home from a day out shopping, I opened one of the bags and pulled out a new DVD that I had purchased. It was shrink wrapped in plastic and well protected from grubby fingers putting greasy smudges all over the cover. Upon trying to open this DVD and remove the plastic wrapping, I found it quite difficult. I could take to it with a knife and cut the plastic, but might risk cutting the valuable DVD case underneath. I did try to use my fingernail to slide up down the crease of the DVD cover on the side, but the plastic did not yield or break. I tried picking at the little flaps of plastic at the top with no success so I gripped hold of the corner of the DVD hoping to stretch the plastic and break it. My success was limited and I ended up with only a very small corner broken away. I was ready at this point to find something to some how cut, break or pierce the plastic to weaken it, however when I looked closer at the piece I had managed to pull off, it appeared I had just enough room to pick at it with my fingernail and finally after a few tries I broke the plastic wrap a little more and it unravelled very quickly and I was finally able to open the DVD case so I could watch the movie. Now this must seem like a very mundane thing to write about and maybe you even wonder how there could be an analogy in this story about life or faith, this is what I shall proceed to share with you.

Often our lives are like this new DVD case. There are times that we think we have our lives altogether and we are sailing along smoothly without any real dilemmas in our lives. We have carefully wrapped our lives in this ideal that keeps our lives are neat and tidy and in order and that will keep the grubby fingers of the world from smudging and making a mess of our lives. But not all is as it seems, all of a sudden we find that something we didn’t plan on happens or life pulls in a direction that we are not ready for and it takes a chunk out of plastic force field we have around our well planned out life. Unprepared we start to see this small break cause our whole life to unravel and it leaves us vulnerable and scared of everything falling apart. I guess the question I would ask you is this;

What is holding your life together? Is it you and your well planned ideals or is it something more, something beyond you like God. God has the ability to mend tears in the plastic that protects our lives and stop them from tearing and completely unravelling. When we depend on Him for our lives, not only do we get the security that He is in control, or that we can handle any situation that comes along , but our lives are will follow the path they are meant to follow, not just the way we think would be best to go. There are many things in this life that would try to break that plastic covering of your life and bring destruction upon you, but only God truly knows how to protect our lives from any kind of tampering and make sure that we don’t simply fall apart.

God knows the true value of what is hidden under that plastic wrap of your life, let Him who finds worth in it, and take care of it for you by entrusting the care of your whole life to Him. There is a verse in the Bible that appears to be so important for us to take note of that it appears twice within the Book of Proverbs “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12 and Proverbs 16:25. Let us not be stubborn and think we know the right way to live, God has our path planned out for us and although it may not always be a life filled with happiness and Good times, if we travel with God through this life, we will find it to be very fulfilling and satisfying and that we will find our true destiny. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

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