Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.

• Genesis 4:22

In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

• 1 Kings 6:7

When my wife had her open-heart surgery in 2018, they gave her some tools and taught her how to use them.  I recently looked online to see how much replacement tools would cost.  I got the two grabbers in the photo above, but I found them under hip and knee replacement tools.

Tools have been around since before the flood.  Tubal-Cain was a descendant of Cain, the one who killed Abel.  Having this bit of Cain’s ancestry in the Bible seems odd in that they should have been wiped out in the flood, and their expertise wiped out with them.  But while Noah and his three sons survived the flood on the Ark, so did their wives.  Somehow the concept of metal working survived the flood, along with tool making.

But back to my wife’s tools.  She was a member of the “zipper club.”  This means she had her rib cage opened to do surgery on the heart and then they tied her ribcage back together with stainless steel zip ties.  Something went wrong in that she complained about pain in the zip ties the rest of her life.  One “tool” not shown above was a teddy bear.  It was used for her to hug while she got up or laid down, at least until her rib cage was fully healed.  In hugging the teddy bear, she did not strain her chest when changing positions.

The grabbers were for grabbing, of course.  But in getting dressed, having two grabbers were important.  You grabbed either side of the underwear and fed your feet through as you normally would, always remembering T.G.I.F.  Sorry, you looked confused.  T.G.I.F.  stands for “toes go in first.”  But then you repeat this with the pants.  That way you can dress yourself without bending over.

But then the big blue thing in the photo is the sock assist tool.  You slide a sock over the curved frame completely with the toe stretched across the top (inside out).  Then again, T.G.I.F. and the sock is on.  My wife gave up trying to use it, but I got pretty good at it.

Why am I explaining all this?  When this post comes out, I will probably have a catheter for the third time this winter.  It is hard to bend, impossible if the catheter was set up without bending in mind.  Okay, possible with a lot of pain, an awful lot of pain. While you might have someone take you home after the surgery, going back to the doctor’s office to get the catheter removed means putting on clothing.  In the winter, socks and shoes might be important.  When I left the hospital after the second of three surgeries (a fourth at the outpatient surgical center with no catheterization), I used a cane as a grabber and got dressed except for the socks and shoes.  I was really proud of myself.

But while my wife got these tools after the surgery, it is best to practice when you don’t need them yet.  While you might accidentally get into a pair of pants with one grabber, diapers are nothing but elastic.  You do not have a hole to put your toes through unless you have two grabbers.

Now for you young people out there, this may all sound silly, but you will possibly get your turn someday.

And with all this pain and suffering, I praise God.  He was with me the entire time and He inspired people along the way in making tools.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.