Stuffing a sock in it

A few mornings ago, I felt cold air pouring into the entryway. I couldn’t figure out where it originated. I had pushed a towel in front of front door to cover gaps between door sweep and threshold, but my feet still felt a horrendous cold spot. I searched for the source and found that the door frame had slightly warped next to the north sidelight. The warping had left about an 1/8-inch gap between bottom of door frame and sidelight frame. Gap narrowed as it went up before closing about a foot above the floor.

I cut up some of my old socks and shoved them into this gap with a metal ruler. I could feel the cold retreat as I plugged the hole. I was determined to stuff enough socks into the hole to completely plug it. This process took about half an hour. Oh, the perils of owning an old house!

As I shoved the socks into this hole, I thought of Ezekiel 22:30: “I [God] looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.”

What a sad verse! “… but I found none.” What an indictment!

As I considered this verse, I thought about my gap-plugging tools. Is anything less glamorous than old socks from the rag bin? They appeared to be at the end of their useful life, only to be used in a very critical role, keeping subzero temperatures outside instead of inside. Their role is no longer as public as covering my feet, but still very useful to keep us warm.

Do we ever think that we are too worn out for God’s service, languishing in the rag bin, one step from the landfill? Maybe we’re on the shelf and maybe feel that we’ve been forgotten. Then our new role opens and we are used again. God plugs us into the gap and uses us again for His glory. What a privilege!

Whose gap do you stand in?