by Tim Kneezel

The house that my wife and I live in was built in the 1920s. If you've ever tried to move someone into a house that old, you'll quickly come to find that staircases were built much narrower and steeper back then. In particular, the box spring for our queen size bed did not fit up the stairs. Not to be deterred by such frivolous concepts as physics and geometry, I decided that I was going to make it happen no matter what anyone else said.

After we dislodged the box spring from where it was jammed between three walls and a window (for the fifth time), I had a brilliant idea. I would take it back downstairs and dismantle it, then take the individual pieces upstairs and reassemble it. How hard could it be? I shouldn't need any help with this.

I spent the next few days punching, kicking, twisting and hammering the frame apart. I brought the (mostly intact) pieces up to our bedroom and carefully realigned every nail with its corresponding nail hole and put it all back together.

It was a very proud moment for me the first time we laid down on our bed in our new house and the mattress wasn't on the ground. That moment lasted until I shifted my weight the first time and the frame let out a rather loud squeal. It seems that if you put nails back into the exact holes that you just widened when you ripped the nails out, then they can rub up and down a bit and make a horrible noise.

After Solomon died, the nation of Israel was violently ripped apart like my box spring. Eventually, the piece of the kingdom that Rehoboam inherited from his father was then invaded and the temple of Jerusalem was ransacked. Instead of asking God for the help which was promised him as a descendant of David, Rehoboam stubbornly decided to try and fix things himself. To make matters worse, he replaced the golden shields that Solomon had made to honor God with lesser bronze shields that were only worn in order to honor Rehoboam himself.

All I needed to do was to ask for help and use just a little glue to hold it solidly, and silently, together. There's a good chance that if Rehoboam would have spent more time listening to God, and less time listening to himself then God could have been the glue that might have held his people together. Instead his people cried out in protest and rebellion (12:19) against him.

Your fellow traveler,
Tim