No Strings Attached
“Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” -- Ecclesiastes 4:12 NKJV

In a recent dream I was standing in front of shelves that were stocked with rectangular boxes patterned in black and white. A man handed me one of the boxes and I asked what was in it. He said, “a wireless router.” I asked why he was giving it to me. He said, “Because the manufacturer is dead, so now you can have all of his stuff for free.” 

Since becoming a Christian seven years ago, I have learned to pay attention to my dreams. So I researched the function of a wireless router. Its purpose is to allow a computer or a network of computers that have been configured with wireless software to access the Internet without any cable or wires. The router itself is connected to a modem that is connected to the Internet. Also, the router is configured with “firewall” software that guards against unwanted information entering a network, much as a security guard controls who enters and leaves a building. Although the computer  is completely dependent on the router to get to the Internet, with this “Wi-Fi” connection the computer operates with “no strings attached.” 

Most of us have wireless routers in our homes. That’s how I’m writing this and probably how you’re reading it. These devices give the computer (and therefore us) portability and independence. We can cook dinner while following a recipe on our laptop, ipad or iphone without wires and cables getting in the way of our onions and garlic. But just a decade ago, we’d have to plug and unplug, frustrated by the restriction of the wires. But now that we don’t see them, unless there’s some technical issue, we rarely think about what is enabling this connection. The computer is, in fact, (wirelessly) connected to the router, the router is (physically) connected to the modem and the modem is (physically) connected to the Internet. Operating together, this threefold connection is strong. But the only time we think about it is if something happens to one of the devices and the connection is broken. 

In the same way, in our daily lives, we, too, rely on a threefold connection: us, Jesus and God the Father. But do we think about who enables that connection? Do we give credit to the One who allows us to “...live and move and have our being”? (Acts 17:28) When we pray, do we immediately start asking for things, not recognizing the One who is “routing” our information to and from God the Father? Just because we can’t see Him, we must not forget what He died to give us. 

Before Jesus, the connection to the Father was hard wired, if you will, to the Law. Only animal sacrifices could atone for sin and allow communion with God. But Jesus’ death, the ultimate sacrifice, gives us direct access to God the Father. Indeed, as Peter says in his second epistle (1:3), “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness...” Everything. We lack nothing. We even have a firewall against the devil. In John 10:10, Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Like the man in the dream said, because he died, all of his stuff is now free. Our part is to believe and receive “his stuff.”

Did you know that an umbilical cord is threefold? It has one vein and two arteries. They carry oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood to and from the baby. When the baby is born the cord is cut, yet mother and child are forever connected. So it is with our threefold connection. Jesus, if you will, is our “wireless router” to God the Father. No strings attached.