Three Strands are Better

[1]

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.  If one person falls, the other can reach out and help.  But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.  Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?  A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.  Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.  It is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice.  Such a youth could rise from poverty and succeed.  He might even become king, though he has been in prison.  But then everyone rushes to the side of yet another youth who replaces him.  Endless crowds stand around him, but then another generation grows up and rejects him, too.  So it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-16(NLT)

If you’re prone to looking at the glass half-empty, perhaps reading Ecclesiastes will push you farther down the dark, spiraling staircase!  The wisest man alive said all of life is meaningless and empty, like chasing the wind; you’ll never catch it, so why try?  That’s hardly a Ted Talk, full of inspiration and eager optimism!

But it is full of the reality of life, and a mature look at the uselessness of endless grasping at material things, or experiences that top one another, yet add nothing to the real meaning of your existence. 

Sandwiched in-between all this vapid emptiness of being alone and self-reliant is a one-liner that unhinges Solomon’s meaninglessness and blows it away in that uncatchable wind.  Solomon says a 3-stranded braid is better.  Anyone who knows about braiding understands that if you attempt to braid two strands of hair it will just unravel, and the result will be frustration; a successful braid requires weaving together at least three strands.  This gem is shared with many brides and grooms standing before the preacher.  And the point is subtle but vital:  husbands and wives whose lives are tied together, without a third strand to give pattern and strength to the bond, are bound to come unglued!  That third strand is a home built with God at the center.

Whenever I do have the privilege of leading a wedding service I take my cue from Solomon at this point.  Solomon said a lot of chapters of vanity or emptiness before he got to the real point.  I imagine he believed you weren’t ready to hear the good news until you had really (painfully) understood the bad. 

So, my version of three strands being better starts with an image I learned from Al Williams.  Al was a part-time preacher I met many years ago, and he was assigned the task of praying the invocation at a business dinner we were attending.  The business was run by a rather divisive man who pitted the sales people against each other to spark competition, and drive sales up, no matter who got clobbered.  The place was a minefield of awaiting explosions in the relationship department. 

Al’s invocation went something like this:  O, dear Lord, You are so good to us, even when we act like two cats with their tails tied together…  

It’s an amazing thing what God can do if we let Him be that third strand that braids our lives together in a pattern that is lovely and strong.  It’s better than just being tied together like a two-stranded braid just waiting to unravel!

For You Today

What is it about your life that needs a third strand to make it better?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com