Uncle
John was a beloved elderly friend from bygone years who always
carried a little can of “3-in-One”oil in his car. He was a
do-it-yourself handyman by hobby.
Whenever he visited us or other
friends, we knew what to expect. If any door squeaked on its hinges,
especially some of the older doors that were quite worn from
being opened and closed so many times, we knew that Uncle John would
attend to them. He also headed for anything else that made an
unwanted mechanical noise to give it his undivided attention with the
oil can. I'm sure that all the many doors in our home were the most
silent in the neighborhood.
Curious
to know if that brand of oil was still sold, I did a Google search.
“3-in-One” was originally formulated in 1894 as a
general-purpose lubricating oil sold in small cans and squeezable
containers for household use. The inventor, George W. Cole of New
Jersey, named it for the product's triple ability to "clean,
lubricate and protect" originally for bicycle chains. It had a
distinctive sharp odor.
Uncle John has long gone to
his reward, but I wondered if the oil was still around. The product
changed ownership many times throughout the 20th century and was
bought by its current owners, the WD-40 Company. Ah ha! I discovered
that I have a can of that in our tool box! They retained the
old-fashioned logo of the text "3 in" inside a large
numeral "1" and more recently redesigned the can to look
like the early 20th century oil can that Uncle John carried around
(hemisphere base with tapered straight spout). The current marketing
slogan is "The Tool Kit In A Can."
Uncle
John was a devout Christian and the brand name of the oil brings to
my mind the analogy of the Trinity with the symbolism of the Holy
Spirit's oil for anointing.
There
are many squeaky things in life that grate on our nerves and annoy
our ears. There are also many squeaky people who make a lot of noise
about nothing, and complain about everything. They are usually
self-centered, picky, fussy, and fastidious. Unfortunately, some of
them, (some of us) are in the senior segment of years. The squeaky
symptom seems to come along with the package of growing older. No
question about it, we have accumulated many things to squeak about,
to grouse about.
Some
of our squeaks have to do with relationships. Some are
intergenerational gripes. We sound off about
the younger members of our family or modern society in general.
People aren't what they used to be, we claim. What we may really mean
is that we are no longer the center of our world or theirs. Of course
it goes both ways. We may seem bothersome to them or misunderstood by
them and we, in turn, may misjudge them. The difficulty is that our two or
more generations are trying to live in different time zones and yet
we share real time in our relationships.
We
need the “3 in One” divine Trinity oil with the application of
the Holy Spirit's gentleness, patience, love, humility, forbearance,
and all the rest of the fruit of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians
chapter five. We need faith in and respect for one another
intergenerationally, and faith and trust in God that He is continuing
to work in all of our lives for good—not necessarily for our
personal comfort and convenience, but for the harmonious working out
of His purposes among us.
Lord,
please give me a big squirt of that divine oil to anoint me at the
hinge of those potential squeaks of life as I grow older. Send along
an Uncle John to help me if necessary so I can be a Barnabas
encourager in my summit relationships instead of a whiner and
grumbler.
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