They will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.- Jeremiah 50:5
I take baths...in glue.
I have to...it's not a weird fetish or something - although I'm seriously resisting the urge to Google whether that is an actual fetish.
I bathe in glue to hold it all together.
There are some very fragile things, delicate things, which I love and for which I dutifully care.
Sometimes it doesn't take much to shatter them.
One moment they'll be fine, pristine and glowing and then "BAM!" in an instant they're in pieces.
I stocked up on glue long ago.
I know how to put the pieces back together. It's often a slow, tedious process.
It can be a lonely process too.
It's not like we live on a fault line or in a war zone with bombs going off all around us. No, these fragile things are shattered by other stuff, often seemingly innocent stuff...that turns out not to be so innocent and leaves lasting repercussions.
A disrespectful phone call from a child, a condescending email from a friend, the realization of a goal unmet...the list could go on and on were I to dwell on it, so I don't.
Sometimes the damage is done by things less apparent, like the shock of unexpectedly rubbing too close to a suddenly hardened heart, or discovering a long held deception concealed by calloused morals.
Of course there are lots of things that cause shards to fly or maybe pieces to simply shift ever so slightly, yet enough to leave everything a tad bit askew.
I've gotten used to it...I bathe in glue.
What's hard for me is having to piece together the shattered dreams, hopes, and realities of those I love. So often they are blindsided and the damage is done while the source of the havoc has scurried away, blissfully unaware or unconcerned about the wreckage left by retreat.
Of course, they're just people too...and often times I suspect they're barely holding themselves together...and maybe we're only collateral damage...hit by the shrapnel of their personal implosions.
My friend Matt wrote me the other day saying, "Hurt people, hurt people" and I understood.
For the record, when that happens you can't use just any glue.
Elmer's won't cut it...even "Super-Glue" or those special epoxy glues that have to be mixed immediately prior to use are not strong enough to make these type of repairs.
No, there's only one glue that I've found that really works...and even with it, I find I often I have to use great globs over and over again...
Big healthy doses of glue...never worry about leaving any to spare, always focus on the immediate fix.
Thank God that it's really sticky stuff...
Plus there always seems to be plenty more go to around...if you look for it.
