Some Assembly Required

We bought a barbecue grill last night and brought it home in a very heavy, large box. After years of battle with the gas-jet-spiders and adding special woods and briquettes to the gas burner to give it that "charcoal" flavor, we decided to return to the old charcoal grill. Since it is near the end of the cookout season and floor space is being used for Christmas stuff, they did not have one assembled at the store. We had to go by the picture, description and our imagination.

This morning my first job was to assemble the grill. (My daughter's boy friend and two of his buddies from Liberty University are with us for a long weekend.) I had plenty to do today so I didn't have time to waste on the grill. I decided that I would assemble it with the instructions this time. (Generally, I refer to the instructions only when the sub-assemblies I built, because it was obvious how they went together, did not fit together. This always means taking something apart and reversing the sides or bolts.)

Step by step I followed the instructions. Soon our new grill began to take form. Odd, unknown pieces became obvious important components as the construction advanced. The ash pan was coated with some sort of sticky substance that made it difficult to peel off the plastic bag. I assume this will make it work better. (I trust the instructions.)

I even installed the only high tech part of this primitive firebox, the temperature gage. The instructions had me install it last. The author knew the climatic emotion of snapping the retaining ring to the backside of the gage as a final step in the construction would bring a surge of pride to any man.

In the end it reminded me that following God's instructions in His Word makes a lot more sense than waiting until things don't fit together before turning to the instructions to see what we did wrong. In life, some things look odd or out of place, and some stuff is sticky and messy, but if we trust the Author of the instructions, the result will be wonderful.

Check it out in Romans 8:18-32

Just Thinking