I remember once looking at a sundial, and someone said: did you know that when it comes to telling time, the sundial has the fewest moving parts?  But then came the next question, which timepiece has the most moving parts?  Do you know?

Of course, being a watch and clock enthusiast, I immediately began to think of all the beautiful and intricate timepieces I had seen, especially chronograph pocket watches. But no matter which one I chose, it was always wrong.

This got me to thinking, how many times do we look at something that supposedly is giving us the information we need, but after following that data we discovered there was more to it than what we saw at first sight. And what a surprise! It changed everything. Sometimes it is referred to as “fine print.”

It’s in this fine print that we often discover the whole truth. Just like an advertisement for an item that has in large print, “Only $19.99!” Then when it comes in the mail and we read the receipt we find out that there was $9.99 in shipping and handling charges added, plus we didn’t see the fine print that said: $19.99 per month for 12 months. In addition, there is a 28% interest charge added to each payment. So the total charge comes to almost $300!

That’s the way it is in life when we meet challenges in our quest to get something, or achieve some goal, or try to figure out how to handle some issue. We often take the advice of friends or family that seem very simple on the surface, only to realize later there was a whole lot more to it than that, and so we sometimes end up making matters even worse.

The same is true of our spiritual lives. For instance, there are eight beatitudes in Jesus Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Chapter 5. They are informative and instructive. But we should not stop reading there, Jesus goes on to teach many more virtues that a believer should develop in their lives in Chapters 6 & 7. And when we reach Matthew, Chapter 23, we find a list of ten “woes” that Jesus warned against. So when this is pointed out to a new Christian, it can be overwhelming.

But for me the key to this that makes handling all of these instructions, is the fine print in Matthew 11:29-30 where Jesus invites every believer to bond with Him, to learn from Him and follow His example so that He can help them at every point and turn in life when facing decisions and choices that will affect them not only now, but for eternity. And the only way to do that is to study what He said and did, and know that His hand will guide and lead us.

By the way, I finally found out which timepiece has the most moving parts. It’s the hourglass, with thousands of small grains of sand following each other through the neck in the middle, from the top to the bottom. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda