I first appreciated my lack of connection when it took several texts back and forth to set up a simple lunch date with a good friend. I realized that if I’d thought about her initial texts, we would have foregone several back and fourths.
So, I settled the lunch date with my friend, and began my nighttime ritual of plugging in my phone, inserting one ear foam and locating my AirPods so I could blissfully fall to sleep to George Mac Donald in my other ear.
I plugged in my phone but couldn’t find my AirPods. I looked and looked, and looked and looked, and looked. I knew that my sleep depended upon my finding the AirPods. (I’m currently listening to MacDonald’s fairy tales. Perfect for sleep inducing and awake pondering) So I kept looking.
At a certain point, after much frustration, I thought to look to the end of the AirPod cord. Maybe? Of course, I found my AirPods. Connection assured. Why hadn’t I looked to the cord in the first place?
As I settled in to sleep, I thought over my day. I thought about this morning’s conversation with my daughter-in-law. She shared with me her struggle to relate with my grandson. She worried that she and my son were not able to understand their sweet baby boy’s emotional needs. They were searching for connection.
While I listened to her, I thought about our Father’s relationship with us. Though our Father created us for connection with Him, it takes us years to trust that connection. It takes time for us to comprehend and trust His love for us. When we finally start to understand the depth of His love for us, the cord between us is strong enough to withstand what comes. My daughter-in-law and son are strengthening my grandson’s trust in them everyday. As he screams and screams and doesn’t seem to listen, they continue to listen and strive to understand, and he grows to trust them more each day.
I’m still in bed. I’m thinking about another broken connection: My husband is not happy with me. He’s facing away from me in bed. Earlier in our life together I’d been worried, sorry, dreamed scary dreams. Now I’ve been through enough evenings like this to know that the cord between us may appear discolored and grimy, but can be counted upon in the morning.
In George MacDonald’s “The Princess and the Goblin”, a golden thread provides direction, connection, and protection when those who cling to it, walk forward. When in trouble, those who follow the thread are assured. The key is walking forward in faith, trusting that the thread will not break.
“But, remember, it may seem to you a very roundabout way indeed, and you must not doubt the thread. Of one thing you may be sure, that while you hold it, I hold it too.”
The same can be said about the threads between us. We can trust our connections or busily overlook them. We have the choice to walk forward in our relationships, or to stall. It’s in walking forward, that the threads strengthen and we grow to trust their connections.
George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (1872), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith (1920), Chapter 15.
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