A Tangled-up Mess

“For as much as a surpassing spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and declaring of riddles, and loosing of knots, were found in the same Daniel.” Daniel 5:12

This chapter is one of the most peculiar stories in the Bible in my opinion, but one I’ve always loved. ‘King Belshazzar held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand. Suddenly the fingers of a man's hand emerged and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.’ Daniel 5:1-5. The king could not interpret what the handwriting said so the queen reminded him that Daniel had the Spirit of God within him. Through this Spirit he would be able to understand what was written…solve the riddle…loosen the knots of interpretation.

Yesterday I was going to volunteer at an organization for the day. I glanced up at my window seal and noticed for the millionth time my knotted up black pearl necklace. I have had this necklace for over 10 years and for the last 5 years it has remained in a tangled mess. The knot is so tight and both Bruce and I have tried multiple times over the years to untangle it. I had placed it on the window seal to take it to a jeweler, and of course it has laid there for 6 months. I had ten minutes before I needed to leave and picked up the necklace again. I was playing with the one loose end and began thinking about the impossibility of loosening the knot that had been there for years. My mind began wandering about several things that needed resolution in my life. As I pondered these things my hands were rolling the different pearls between my fingers. My mind returned to the necklace and I heard myself say, ‘Lord you could just say the word and this necklace would be loosened.’ I know how crazy this sounds but at that moment I saw the intersecting chain that needed to be threaded through another and within 5 minutes the necklace was completely straightened out. It was as if He took over my hands and began moving pearls under and over…in and out…weaving the fine chain where it needed to go. I immediately knew God was showing me that every unresolved matter in my life was in His hands. I was so encouraged to know that things that appear tangled up in my life are in the perfect order of God's resolution. I was completely in awe and will never wear this necklace again without thinking of this experience.

I began considering how all of us probably have ‘knots’ that have been there for years…knots that we have tried to loosen on our own only to fail. When we take matters into our hands we can end up with one knotted necklace for sure. No matter how tangled the mess, we can call on God to take over and show us how to move through our difficult seasons. We need Him to thread His peace and understanding revealing how to endure the things that have us knotted up. We must let go of our failed attempts at controlling the outcome of our circumstances and allow Him to straighten it out for us.

Like Daniel, we as believers have the Spirit living within each of us. We have access to the same power that Daniel used to ‘loosen the knots’ of the riddle. We can call on that power that raised Christ from the dead to raise us up in hope, comfort and encouragement. We can pray that God would place His hands around ours and untangle our circumstances. I pray that you allow God to loosen whatever has you ‘knotted up’ today so that the beauty of your life can be displayed.