A five minute job!

 

The other day I tackled what I thought was a quick five-minute job. Now, I’ve been told
there isn’t such a thing as a ‘five-minute job’, and I managed to prove that as I started the
‘small’ job.  Its funny that when something starts to go a little bit wrong, it seems the problems increase and the mishaps keep coming. So, one thing after another seemed not to work as it should and I needed to get extra tools from my shed. In trying to carry too much, a box of screws fell, spilling out the contents and after clearing up I eventually got back to the job. Now, what should fit didn’t seem to fit and things appeared to be the wrong way round. After further consultation with the very feint instruction leaflet, I found there were umpteen reasons why I might be having the problems. As usual, some of the instructions hadn’t translated too well, involving a bit of guess work. The result of this was the need for a drill and extra bits and pieces and yet another trip up the garden to the tool shed!

Ultimately, I finished the job only for it to fall off the wall and land on the floor in various
pieces. By now the ‘five-minute job’ theory had gone right out of the window.
Having run out of time and feeling a bit dejected, I went to return the tools back outside,
ready for me to attack the job another day. As I opened the back door and got half-way to the shed it poured with rain, I was now dejected and wet!

Then something surprising happened, sitting on the fence beside me, I heard a black-bird suddenly starting to sing its song, not quietly, but in full voice with no other bird sounds, just his. A cheerful bright song seemingly telling me that even though I felt stressed out, I wasn’t to be down-hearted; there was beauty and joy around me and also the garden needed the rain!

Sometimes, when a five-minute job doesn’t go right, or life has become a little tough, mixed-up and frustrating, that black-bird was telling me I wasn’t alone. God Himself had given the black-bird that beautiful ‘song message’ just for me.

As the Psalmist says in Psalm 34:8 “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the
man who trusts in Him.” And, like us, that job is still a work in progress!!