Links in a Chain

I have one of the coolest jobs in the world. As the marketing director for a jewelry design and manufacturing company, I get the opportunity to be surrounding by sparkly things all day. It's pretty much a girl's dream job and because we make the jewelry here in the States, I not only get to understand the design concept, but get to see that concept translated into reality.

When people come to visit our factory, one of the things that I like to tell them is that no one realizes how complicated a piece of jewelry really is. Even a simple pendant has at least a half dozen components that go into creating it. All of these details have to be thought through in order to execute the design fully. Otherwise the strength of the design, and the strength of the product, would be compromised.

The amazing thing about all those components is that you have to have each of them for the product to be saleable. You can't fudge on one and expect to still have a pendant that someone could actually wear. Every jumpring, every casting, every link is important.

In her book "God Gave Us A Valley", Helen Roseveare writes about her experience returning to the Congo after rebellion had destroyed the land. Originally trained as a medical missionary, her return trip was primarily spent building a medical school where she found herself much more of an administrator than a doctor. Questioning the value of the years that were spent building the school and her own life calling as a missionary she was reminded that her latter work might not have involved a lot of personal evangelistic efforts, but that through her work multitudes of others had been trained and executed that call. "Not every one can be the last link in the chain" she was told. Sometimes our efforts have to be built upon others before the Designer's final masterpiece is complete. Being the middle link may not be as flashy as being the last, but they are all necessary.

As someone who feels that she rarely takes the opportunity to directly share about her faith, this brings me comfort. As someone who is involved in training the next generation to be witnesses of Christ's love in business, this brings me joy. For every Christian, it should bring confidence that all the work that we do on our Father's behalf is used for His purposes and therefore is valued and important.