Do You Wrinkle Beneath the Iron?

It may sound like a strange question to ask, but consider for a moment. Have you ever taken up the shirt sleeve you’ve been ironing, only to discover a deep crease on the reverse side? Or perhaps, in your hurry to “rub out those wrinkles” in a denim skirt, you’ve actually added a few extra? I have. And the thought came to me quite forcibly, The process that was meant for good can have the opposite effect. Why? Because I was in a rush—because I wasn’t careful to keep the fabric smooth. It was a lesson to ponder on.

The Lord is so good to make pertinent applications of truth to our lives. To say it more simply, Jesus knows how to make things “hit home” to us. So it was with the allegory of the iron. Not long ago I had an experience of being told to wait for several months on a project that seemed very pressing to me. This was a great trial to me; a heated iron, if you will. I couldn’t see any value in sitting still, but Jesus said “sit.” There are many perplexities and paradoxes in life that don’t fit with how we think things should go, and this was one of them. I’m afraid that at first my questioning of the Divine will caused me to “wrinkle” under the trial. Finally I realized that my inward puzzling was getting me nowhere, and resigned to fully submit it all to the Master. “It matters not what I think, Lord, but that You have Your way.”

Isn’t it marvelous how God is so apt to work right at the moment we get completely still? Under His patient hand, the iron was given its free way, and the wrinkles had to go. While I trusted, He prepared me for further usefulness. He taught me more of my need and dependence upon Him, the humility so necessary to be in tune with the Spirit of God. This had been His purpose all along in giving me the trial, but the results had been delayed by my human resistance. How foolish we can be at times! If only we can acknowledge God’s Divine right to “bring on the heat” with humble trust, how much easier our lives would be!

In our very nature none of us enjoy trials. But, just as ironing is meant to ready our clothes for wearing, trials are meant to ready our souls for heaven. Instead of trying to “get them over with,” wouldn’t it be best to slow down and get still, so God can work His purpose? How apt our wills are to protest: Oh, but I cannot stand being under an iron! It is a heated furnace wherein I will surely burn up, a heavy weight that may crush me! O foolish soul, will you trust the Hand that holds the iron? He does no scorching. The pressure you feel is nothing more than the touch of faithful love, which indeed will not give you a moment too much. Will we so receive it?

In His tender patience, God knows we can so respond to as to come out worse for the ironing. But He takes the risk and applies the iron. Will this foolish soul see its foolishness and submit? Will the wrinkles of impatience and pride be pressed out? Will their resentment melt under the steam? Or will new and harder creases be made by the heat? Oh, dear one, let us ask ourselves solemnly the question: Do you wrinkle beneath the iron?