What is the wrench for?

I knew that as soon as she rode away I would forget the list of instructions if I didn't write them down. As the three horses traipsed happily off to the shady forest with my daughter bouncing merrily to her lesson, I looked at the wrench in my hand.
"I hope you were listening, Marie, because I don't remember why we have this wrench, do you?"
Marie was my accomplice in helping out at the farm while our daughters had their riding lesson.
"I wasn't really listening," said Maire.
"Well maybe when we head over there, we will figure it out."

Our job was to drain and clean the algae covered watering troughs. At least, that was the job as I remembered it. But then that wrench in my hand seemed to indicate there was something else we were supposed to do, but for the life of me, I could not remember how it involved the wrench. There was no water supply for the one trough, if I recalled Jill's instructions correctly, which as we have already established, I did not. We were given two buckets, scrub brushes, a large bottle of bleach, and 2 pairs of plastic gloves....and the wrench.

We had to empty the grungy green water first, so we used the buckets and bucket by bucket tossed out the water.
"I do remember we were to leave a little water in the bottom, pour bleach in around the rim so it dribbles down and cleans the sides, and then scrub."
So I began to pour the bleach down the sides. I wasted half a bottle of bleach missing the sides. I was already having a bad day having tried to play Eidelweiss from memory on my guitar. I have been practicing it for 2 months now. I can't even consistently remember the first 6 notes, and struggle to pluck the right string without looking at it. I had been reduced to tears of frustration, and Asherel, who is teaching me, told me that for now it was ok if I didn't do any other music at all except Eidelweiss.
"That would be a good idea," I sniffled.
And now, I was wasting Jill's bleach because I couldn't pour steadily on the trough rim. And there was still that wrench, menacingly gaping its open jaws at me from the lawn beside us.

Marie and I scrubbed the trough which was so full of noxious bleach fumes that I could feel my hair turning white (r) as I breathed in. We cleaned it til every last bit of algae was gone. Then together, we hefted the huge trough over to drain the last bit of water.
"How do we refill it?"
"Or rinse it?"
The water pump was a good distance back at the barn.
"Well how about if we just get a couple of buckets full to rinse it, and then Jill might be back."
"Yes, and we will have to admit we don't know what the wrench is for.And that I wasted half her bleach."
We trudged back with our sloshing buckets, rinsed the trough, and then dumped it again by together tipping it and laboriously tossing water into it from that awkward angle. Satisfied we rolled it back, and that is when I noticed the drain...with a nut the perfect size for a wrench to open. Oh.

And I realized that most of my life, I ignore or forget that I have a wrench always available to help me through the hard parts, but I struggle to the point of despair on my own, not using the one useful tool I have been provided. As I settled into bed last night, I felt waves of sorrow wash over me, and panic about the upcoming State Science Olympiad, teaching calculus to my homeschooled girl when I never took calculus myself and this week could not figure out partial factors using induction, all the little details of the wedding trip and reservations still to be made, the dental appointment coming up, the 9th grade curriculum to be ordered.... I thought of how when Marie asked how I was, I said, "I am weary." No wonder, wrestling every night with all these rusted pipes of life with my bare hands.

After stewing for an hour, I grabbed my iPod from beside my bed and saw a new message. It was my daily Bible reading that pops up every morning. Must be after midnight, I thought. And there was a verse which as soon as I read it, my heart slowed, my panic retreated, and I fell asleep. The verse could have been, "Jesus is the light, the way, and the wrench...." but it wasn't.  It was a simple verse from Jeremiah, reminding me that I was not alone, and there was a source of relief for my weary soul....the wrench I too often forget.

 Jeremiah 31:25
I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish.