During our Mountain T.O.P. board meeting last Saturday, Bob Turner gave a devotion which used a nut and a bolt as examples. A bolt can be held in place by various types of fasteners; it’s actually the bolt, not the nut, which bears the load and the bolt, not the nut, which is irreplaceable. The symbolism was that God is the constant in the universe and it is we who must figure out how we fit into God’s plan.

At the conclusion of the devotion, he gave each of us on the board a little nut and bolt as a memento. I stuffed my nut and bolt into my pocket.

When I did laundry a few days later, I realized that I’d left them in my pocket; when I was retrieving the load from the dryer, I found the bolt but not the nut. So much for my memento!

But then, a few days after that, I did another load of laundry and the nut turned up after all. Fortunately, I had saved the bolt and now I have both of them together again. There has to be some sort of deep, spiritual meaning to this, but I’ll be darned if I know what it is.