One Little Wrinkle

It was just a simple return.
The socks I ordered were not what I expected.
I knew they had to go back.
Returns should be easy.

This return was not.
I went on the website expecting an easy path to return my socks.
There was no such path.
I had to email the Happiness Team to tell them why I was not happy.

A return should be as easy as the initial purchase.
When you have to go through lots of hoops, it is discouraging.
A discouraged customer is usually not a repeat customer.
I sent the email.

I like that the company gives back to the community.
I have heard about these particular socks and wanted to try them.
Whenever you order socks from them, they donate socks to homeless shelters.
I wanted to participate in that, which is why I ordered the socks in the first place.

When they arrived, they were not right for me.
My husband told me to keep them.
They were more expensive than socks I usually buy and I could not justify keeping them.
My carefully worded email said as much to the Happiness Team.

I got an email back that they were not available but someone would be in touch with me.
When that someone contacted me the next day, I had to email the same things again.
I got an email telling me that my reply had to be typed above a certain line.
I got another email asking me to tell them what items I was returning.

All of that information was in my original email.
However, I complied and answered them yet again.
Finally, I got the email that included my prepaid shipping label.
I printed the label and prepared to send my package back to them.

Four pairs of socks do not lay flat inside a small plastic bag.
Even though I packaged them the same way I received them, the package was puffy.
I affixed the label as best I could, using clear packing tape.
I should have put the label on before I put the socks in the bag, but it was too late.

I smoothed the prepaid label to cover the label already on the package.
I taped the label at the top.
I proceeded to work my way down the label with the clear packing tape.
The UPC bar code was at the bottom of the label.

One end of the tape attached to the bottom of the label prematurely.
I could not pull it off without ripping the label.
This made a tiny wrinkle at the bottom of the label.
I didn’t think anything of it.

I took the package to the UPS store and asked for a receipt.
We can’t give a receipt for any USPS package, the man behind the counter said.
I gave him a confused look.
Then I noticed that the label was indeed for the post office and not UPS.

I left the UPS store with my package.
I planned to go to the post office on my way home.
Our little post office closes from 12:00-2:00 every day for lunch.
It was 2:05.

I went up to the counter and handed the woman my package.
She scanned it.
I was waiting for the beep that never came.
She tried again with no success.

I saw her smoothing the bottom of the plastic bag with her fingers.
I saw her pull the label with her fingers.
Then I knew.
That one little wrinkle in the UPC bar code was causing the problem.

I asked if I could help.
If you can pull it really tight, maybe it will scan, she said.
I pulled it tight.
It didn’t scan.

I can just type in the number, she said, which she proceeded to do.
She typed the long line of numbers and stopped.
What do you think that number is? She asked me.
The wrinkle again; the wrinkle made the last number a bit challenging  to read.

I pulled the label between my fingers.
It is a five, I said, absolutely certain.
Since there was a pause in her typing, she had to start at the beginning.
She got to the last number and typed in a five.

There it is, she said very happy to be done.
You won’t be able to track this return, since I couldn’t scan the package, she explained.
I thanked her.
I took my receipt and left.

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. (James 2:10)

One little wrinkle.
I never imagined it would be such a problem.
But it was.
It made everything that was already complicated, even more complicated.

One little point in God’s Word.
One little fudge in a commandment.
One little compromise.
One little shortcut.

There is no room for that in God’s Kingdom.
This is when everyone gets discouraged.
I can’t do it.
I can’t keep God’s law perfectly.

No one can.
But one Person did.
Jesus, fully God and fully man, kept God’s law perfectly.
Jesus lived a sinless life.

Jesus did what we could not do.
The perfect Lamb of God died the death we deserved.
The perfect, spotless Lamb, died in our place.
The wrinkles of all of our sin were placed on Him.

What we could not do, Jesus did perfectly.
No amount of work on our part could change anything.
We need a Savior.
One little wrinkle matters.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for keeping the law perfectly.
Thank you for going to the Cross for me.
I can make all the excuses I want, but my sin matters.
All my sinful wrinkles were put on You, so I could be clean.

Oh, what a Savior!