Metaphorically Speaking (Flat Tire 3.0)

My goal for the year is to read the entire Bible, and I've mentioned some Old Testament stuff over the past few weeks. But my One-Year Bible has readings from the New Testament every day too (plus some stuff from Psalms and Proverbs...but that's beside the point). Yesterday I read the part from Matthew 13 about the parable of the sowers (you know, the one with the seeds falling on all different types of ground). What caught my attention was not the seed story, but what came after it. Basically, the disciples ask Jesus why He goes around speaking to people in parables all the time. His response is basically that certain people-who have been given the secrets of the kingdom of heaven--see and hear (understand the parables) but others don't. It's kind of like certain people are blessed to get the meaning behind the story.

Now, being an English teacher with and English degree, I'm all about some super-secret hidden meanings. And I'm all about life's figurative language. God knows this about me, so sometimes I get the feeling that a lot of the stuff that happens to me is best viewed as some kind of spiritual metaphor designed to teach me something.

Yesterday I got a flat tire, and not just a normal flat tire. I got an extremely difficult and challenging flat tire. With the aide of my mom and a very helpful tow truck driver, I got my car to my friendly neighborhood tire and automotive place. I had called them twice to explain my predicament and let them know my poor stubborn car was coming their way after school. As I was talking with one of the guys who works there, he said maybe the most wonderful words I've ever heard in my life. (And I mean that. I really feel like I could be proposed to one day, and in comparison to these words, the proposal would be the second-best thing I've ever heard.) He told me that he could not only take off the offending locking lug nut that was holding my flat tire hostage, he could take off ALL FOUR and replace them with normal, non-locking 0nes! (Translation: No more locking lug nuts, which means no more stuck flat tires! No more emptying out my trunk and getting out all the tools and jacking up my car...or watching someone do that for me...only to realize the tire can't be taken off!)

I know it may seem obvious, but it never even occurred to me to have that done. In my mind, I was going to have to use my Saturday morning to drive to the Mazda dealer and get a new key (that would probably just disappear if I ever got another flat tire). In my mind, I was going to lose half of my Saturday and still be doomed to an uncertain flat tire future. With his obvious, simple suggestion, Stephen--car guy extraordinaire and my official new hero and favorite person ever (which, don't worry, I told him he was)--lifted a huge, anxiety-causing burden from my car-problem-fearing shoulders. When I left the car place yesterday, I had a patched tire and no more locking lug nuts. It felt like Christmas and my birthday all rolled into one. It was amazing. I can't remember the last time I felt that thankful for anything. (I admit that the last sentence makes me seem totally lame...but I'm not afraid to own up to the truth of it. And I think that to fully understand my excitement, one has to know the entire version of my first flat tire story, which involves a sketchy bowling alley, my trunk full of stuff, a tow truck, and a four-hour wait at a Mazda dealership.) Seriously, I was so thankful that last night when I got home from my little brother's birthday dinner, I baked cookies to take to car Stephen today when I went back to have the new lug nuts put on after school. (Yes I baked cookies.)

Last night as I was baking, I couldn't help but think about my response to getting rid of the locking lug nuts. Overwhelming gratitude and cookies. And I started to feel convicted because I couldn't remember the last time I felt that way about God forgiving me for my sin. And it dawned on me that I was right in the middle of one of my real-life metaphors. My flat tire incident is really a frail, dim metaphor for my forgiveness.

No matter what I do on my own, no matter how many people try to help me, there's no way I can rid myself of my sin. Just like there was no way I was changing my tire yesterday without expert help. When what I need is to be forgiven, God goes above and beyond and gives me forgiveness, everlasting and unchanging love, and one day Heaven. Just like the car guys took off all four lug nuts instead of just one. And just like the burden of locking lug nuts was taken away from me forever, so too is the infinitely heavier burden of my sin taken away through Christ's sacrifice for me on the cross.

If my flat tire is a weak symbol of my sin, logic would suggest that my response to my forgiveness should far outshine my response to getting new lug nuts. But it doesn't. To be honest, most days it doesn't really cross my mind. Most days I don't tell Jesus that He's my hero. And I don't tell my friends Jesus is my favorite person ever. And I'm not moved to give to Him (or bake Him cookies....).

So, not only am I thankful for my flat tire because it showed me that I'm not alone, I'm thankful for my flat tire because God used it to teach me about gratitude. He used it to remind me of exactly what I have to be thankful for. He used it to remind me that I'm one of the blessed ones whose eyes see and whose ears hear. He used it to remind me that He has taken away my true burden. And He used it to remind me of what the proper response to that looks like.