So, just how amazing are tinker toys? I'd say they're pretty incredible. You can build anything with them, and no one can say they are too old for them. For tactile learners, it's a great way to think with one's hands. And I'm sure it wouldn't be considered professional, but maybe they could be on the table of a building project brainstorming meeting. Just a thought. 

In reality, it's just a bucket of painted scrap wood and leftover plastic packaging materials! But how lame would the toy be if it weren't for those round little hubs with all the holes in them? I remember playing with my own set as a kid, and being perfectly happy until I was playing with a newer set at a friend's house, and they had a pulley! It was so cool, and we all wanted to use the pulley in our own projects. But without those hubs, we wouldn't have been able to build anything more than a pile for pick-up-sticks. 

I talked with a friend last night who said she felt like a Tinker Toy. Not too flashy, but the only connection between seemingly unconnected pieces. It seems there are some people in life (I would say I am one as well) who are designed to be people in the crossroads; the hubs of the tinker toy creation. Some are designed to go out from hubs, others are designed to return. Then there are those hubs to just sit...or so it feels sometimes. But God, in His wisdom and mercy, is building the most elaborate Tinker Toy project with our lives. By making us with different gifts and purposes, He is able to build what He desires. Paul says about the Body of Christ (the church), 

"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker  are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor..."  (I Corinthians 12:21-23)

To look at our fellow Christians and see their skills and design as less valuable than our own is about as ridiculous as opening your toy chest to discover your Tinker Toys have been fighting. So take heart, you were bought with a price and the Lord has glorious designs in His mind that he is still building.