SARI SARI’NG REFLECTIONS

by David Nieto

THE PAPER CLIP

The next time you feel that your life does not really count – because you are just a single individual &you cannot do much to right the wrongs in life – remember that a paper clip, a tiny one-inch paper clip, saved a 500,000-pound experimental plane from crashing and breaking into pieces.

An experimental jet airplane known as the SB70A took off from its home base all right, but when the pilots were ready to bring the plane down, the landing gear would not cooperate. No amount of juggling would release the landing gear.

Joseph Cotton, the copilot on the plane, took a paper clip and short-circuited a relay panel, which forced the balky nose gear into landing position. Pilot Al White said, “I am convinced we would have broken the plane to pieces if we had tried to land without the nose gear locked into position.”

A paper clip saved an experimental jet plane! History tells us that on a number of occasions a very insignificant item or object becomes the means or inspiration of accomplishing great things.

A spider who strung a web across a garden path was the inspiration for the suspension bridge.

A kitchen teakettle, singing on the stove, gave Watts the idea of inventing a steam engine.

A swinging lantern in a tower gave rise to a pendulum, and an apple that fell off a tree, landing on the head of Isaac Newton, gave impetus to Newton’s defining the law of gravitation.

We often minimize our potential, saying, “I am just one person.” You may be just one person, but you are, nevertheless, an important person. It’s proper for you to understand you are a person of value and worth because that is the way God feels about you.

In the Old Testament, a young man by the name of Samson took the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand Philistines. It was not because he looked himself in the mirror that morning and said, “I am going to be a success today.” The Bible tells us that he had given his life to God, and the victory was the result of God’s power that came through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Have you forgotten the youthful shepherd boy, David, taking five stones and a leather-thonged slingshot to kill Goliath?

Should I remind you of a beautiful Jewish girl by the name of Esther who saved a multitude of Jews and averted an ancientBuchenwald, or Auschwitz, by her courage? A Moabite girl by the name of Ruth became the great-grandmother of David and a progenitor of Christ, because of her bravery.

Here is the insight: Something weak in the hands of God becomes a great and powerful weapon for good. You may actually feel that your life does not amount to much. In a sense that is good, because you will not be so prone to yield to pride.

Then, it will be easier for you to trust God, and lean on His direction and guidance. Trusting God gives you some backbone so that you can say—as Paul did–“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13)