My son David drives a 1993 Honda Accord given to him by his grandparents. It’s got over 300,000 kms and still works great. It needs the odd repair, but for the most part it’s a reliable vehicle for him.
Last night we did a little father/son repair on the old Honda. David ran out of water last week and we discovered he has a leaky water pump. Sadly, a new water pump will be over $700, which is probably worth more than the car, so we have to improvise. We drained the radiator of the water we poured in to get him back on the road last week. We then added anti-freeze/coolant, as well as some ‘stop-leak’ goop which will hopefully plug the leaks in the water pump.
The tricky bit was taking out, and then putting back in, the drain plug at the bottom of the radiator. Of course it was jammed into a very hard to reach location with minimal room to manoeuvre and get an appropriate wrench wrapped around it. And, wouldn’t you know it, it was snug for the entire length of the threads so we never really got to experience the joy of free spinning it with our fingers.
Decades ago I was very mechanically adept. I rebuilt a Fiat sports car when I was 16, and then did lots of major work to my 1964 Valiant years later. And, I would tinker on cars and small engines for a few years after that, but I really haven’t done much mechanical work for over 20 years.
However, tonight as we were struggling to get the pliers wrapped around this plastic butterfly-headed bolt I began to hearken back to my back-yard mechanic days when I had a valuable skill I have all but lost: I began to see with my fingers again. You guys who are mechanically inclined know exactly what I mean. There are so many occasions when you can’t see the nut or the bolt you need to loosen or tighten, and you learn to see with your fingers. You feel around with your fingers and adjust your tools accordingly. You don’t have to see anything with your eyes, you learn to ‘see’ it by feeling it.
I was trying to teach David this lesson. He was having a heck of a time learning to see with his fingers and not with his eyes. He began to get it, but we both realized this is something that comes with practice. The more you do it, the easier it becomes.
A good mechanic doesn’t necessarily need to see much of what he has to deal with. Sure, it would be great to be able to see very clearly the part that needs to be dealt with, and the nuts, bolts or screws needing to loosened, but that is just not the reality of many mechanical scenarios. So a good mechanic learns to see things differently. He can either whine and complain he can’t see much, or he can learn to ‘see’ things differently and get the job done.
This got me thinking about our walk with Jesus. We are called to walk by faith, not by sight, and that can be pretty tough sometimes. There are many situations when we can’t see very clearly what the Lord is up to… God, is this you? What on earth is going on? Am I hearing you clearly? Why aren’t you speaking Lord? Where are you Lord?
Like a mechanic, we can either get frustrated we can’t see things very well, or we can learn to ‘see’ without our eyes. We can learn to see with the eyes of faith. We learn to see beyond what is seen, to that which is unseen – and that takes faith. The only way we can do that is by walking closely with Jesus, hearing His voice, and by knowing His will through scripture. This enables us to see beyond our circumstances to the bigger picture.
Just like a good mechanic who sees with his fingers, we can learn to see with the eyes of faith to understand what the will of the Lord is. So let’s choose to ‘see with our fingers’ as-it-were, and practice walking by faith, not by sight.
Hebrews 11:1
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
2 Corinthians 5:7
“For we live by faith, not by sight.”
Ephesians 5:17
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”
Luke 4:4
“Jesus answered, “t is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’””