Uncommon Ground

What do a clothespin, a half-used tube of toothpaste, a nightlight bulb, a rubber sink stopper, and a golf ball have in common?

Nothing that I can see.

Recently I was searching for something, which I still haven’t found, and there they were – these five seemingly random items waiting patiently in a drawer. Being the overly analytical, contemplative person that I am, I usually try to find meaning in the mundane, a message in the moment. And I can usually, eventually see significance in such things as if God is trying to show me something through unrelated, arbitrary events. But this one has me stumped. I cannot find any device that all of these things could work together to create or recreate. Their only common ground seems to be their common hiding place – in a shallow drawer in our bathroom.

After a few days of opening and closing the drawer, then walking away to think, I’m still trying to make sense of the pattern before me. Is it possible that these things are meant for separate functions with no relationships to each other at all? Maybe. Am I making too much out of this? Absolutely.

Countless times in my life I have experienced seemingly unrelated events that one day come together in a spiritual “aha” moment. It’s like a huge jigsaw puzzle that got separated from its box with the picture that shows what it’s supposed to look like when finished. Finally after you put the corners and edges together and work toward the center, it starts to look like a picture. Sometimes a beautiful picture.

Romans 8:28 (TLB) says:

“And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans.”

I love it when that happens and I get to see it!