Never Too Stuck

Never Too Stuck

I love the LORD because he hears my voiceand my prayer for mercy.

Psalm 116:1

Superglue in hand, I applied adhesive to the jagged edges and waited before pressing the broken piece in place. The ringing phone drew my attention. Placing the item on the counter, I picked up the receiver.

After my conversation, I hung the phone back in place . . . with my hand firmly attached. Stuck tightly, laughing hysterically, and a touch embarrassed, I used my convenient mode of communication to call for help. Fortunately, my hand and the phone were separated with a product dear to my heart: superglue remover.

Weeks later our young son, distraught over a broken toy, found me in the kitchen. Donning my Supermom cape, I grabbed the glue to fix his plastic submachine gun.

He touched my arm. “Are you sure you should do this?”

“No problem; this is easy.”

He gulped. “But you’re using superglue.”

Yes, there had been several incidents with the product, but I had always fixed what was broken and eventually gotten unstuck.

I gave him a pat, saying, “I’ll be careful.”

After a few squirts in proper places to reattach the broken item, I waited several minutes. My son’s friends gathered around. Convinced the operation had been a success, I tried to set it on the counter. Arrgh! I was not just stuck; the glue had melted and melded my skin to the plastic. And I was out of remover.

Twenty minutes of sweating and begging prayer later, I handed back the toy. With gasps of appreciation and words like awesome and cool, the boys stared at my handiwork. Thanks to my fingerprints, complete with the top layer of epidermis permanently embedded, my son now held the coolest toy on the block.

—Lisa Buffaloe

Thank you, Father, for always hearing our cries for help and answering, no matter how stuck we are in life. Amen.