The Tangled Travel Jewelry Parable

One day when I was traveling for work, I was unpacking at the hotel and opened the box containing my jewelry for the month and found quite a mess! The jewelry had shifted inside of the box during the plane ride and luggage transfer, and now I was left with a tangled and twisted disaster!

The necklace chains were all in knots and wrapped up around all of the other pieces. It looked like an impossible jumbled mess. My first reaction was that I was so overwhelmed with frustration, I wanted to throw the box right in the trash! However, since the pieces had sentimental value and I had a month away from home, I had time to see if any of the jewelry could be untangled. I asked God to help give me great patience as I got started.

First, I needed to get under a bright light to see clearly. In the light, I could see clearer and found a few tangles that were not so bad and was able to untangle them right away.

Next, there were knots that were too hard for me to get on my own without tools. I found a safety pin that was able to get through some of the knots to help me unravel those. It took some time, but one knot at a time I was able to untangle some more.

Little by little I was able to untangle most of the jewelry back to order. Sadly, a few pieces broke during the effort but I accepted and trusted that when the time was right, they could be fixed or replaced. In the end, there were some I had to set aside and work on at a later time because I had to get back to other tasks and responsibilities. When I returned home I could work on them or even ask for help from someone else who may have another idea. I would have loved to fix it all, but there was some pieces I had to let go of for the time being because if I was obsessed with trying to fix it all I would miss out on what I needed to take care of in my life.

Sometimes we face huge life tangles when everything twists, jumbles and knots up all at once. It seems so overwhelming our initial reactions are to give up and throw everything away. However, as we ask God for patience and help, we can work on one piece at a time. We can use the light of God’s Word and the tools of the Holy Spirit to help us. We will see that huge tangled mess slowly but surely come undone.

No matter what, we cannot lose heart. If some pieces are broken beyond our repair, we trust God in faith that He will fix or replace what was damaged in His time. For those areas still needing untangling, we need to stay encouraged. In confidence, we need to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and the call on our lives, and in time He will bring others along to help us until either the whole mess is untangled or anything that was broken along the way replaced with something even better!

Reflect

What areas are tangled up and twisted in your life? Do you feel overwhelmed? Write every area down.

Meditate

Read and speak the following scriptures, and ask the Holy Spirit to show you how you can apply these scriptures to begin untangling the mess one strand at a time.

Isaiah 41:13 Isaiah 42:16 Psalm 119:105 Proverbs 3:5-6 1 Peter 5:10

Act

Focus on one area that needs to untangled. Get under the light of God’s Word and use the tools of the Holy Spirit to help you. As you work on each area you that jumbled mess will start to have order. Ask for help when needed and do not give up. Remembered the pieces that broke along the way will be fixed or replaced if you keep your eyes on Jesus and trust Him. You were not created to untangle it all by yourself. He is ready to help and provide all that you need!