Can Opening!
When I was small I remember my mum opening cans when she was cooking or preparing meals. Now, this can opener had a wooden handle, a longish metal shaft with this hook shaped pointed piece at the end, a bit like the picture above. The idea was that you held the can and basically stabbed the point of this instrument into the top, and by wiggling your hand back and forth you gradually opened the can. Looking back it now seems quite a dangerous and primitive way of getting to your sliced peaches or whatever!
Fortunately technology has moved on and so too has the design of the can opener. Some you place at the side of the can to open, some on the top, some are plastic and some metal. Of course, you may have had the one with the “wing nut” shape that you turned, or you may even still have one in use. I think we must have gone up-market now because we have an electric one, with a magnet to hold the lid when removed. Mind you, it still presents difficulties in getting everything positioned right for it to work.
Why I have gone about the can opener is that it reminded me of something I recently read about Jesus being the “heart opener”. What we need to remember is that we are the messengers and that the Lord is the heart opener. In other words, each one of us is charged to be faithful and proclaim God’s message of love, joy, peace, forgiveness, reconciliation and His saving grace, and that is our calling. So the ‘thought’ is for us to do our part to reach people, and God will do His part in opening their hearts to receive Him.
One of the Apostle Paul’s first converts in Macedonia was Lydia, where the Bible tells us, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message …. and she and her household were baptised”. Acts 16: 14 – 15. You see how it works ─ we do our part and God will do His.
Vic, 11/05/2025