We drove in the car and I pondered the beauty of my eldest daughter. I considered to myself how her face and features had journeyed over the years and I considered what was to come.

I considered myself at her age and how she looks now, and in my mind I began to wonder how the stretching of her features would change her look over time and show her to be even more beautiful.

And in a moment of a spilt second there was suddenly a questioning. A question of how I, ageing further and wrinkling more would stand beside her young and new beauty. A question of how the wilted flower could sit on the branch next to the freshly opened bud. Comparison. One of Satan’s favourite techniques for diversion.

But just as quickly as the question arrived it was dismissed.

Yes. I would be okay with that.

Yes I would be okay with not being the star of the show.

Yes I would be okay with not being ‘it’.

I would be okay with not being the greatest, I explained to God. I would accept the role of the ‘before’ the great.

And I knew there was a word I was looking for, I knew there was a term I was trying to find to explain the role I would be okay being.

And then I seen it.

And I could not un see it.

The white tube whose sole purpose, the piece of white paper plastic whose only existence was to be the push behind what would come after.

And I laughed. And I laughed again. God, you can’t really be telling me this, of all things.

The applicator behind the tampon.

The applicator for a tampon.

Oh father God, what crazy things you have me write. Surely something else would have better described what you wanted me to write about.

Or maybe not.

Maybe this is the perfect example of what we can be called to be in some roles.

You see the applicator, he is not the main man. He has only one purpose. He has only one job. And he accepts it gracefully. And he does his job well.

His role is one of first ‘holding’ and containing, sheltering the main man you could say. And then he will push the main man forward. He will push the best man who has the right calling, into his destiny. Into the purpose of its creation.

The tampon itself cannot reach the destination it needs to reach without the push from the applicator.

You see, our God, has many roles in his home, he has multiple roles in his family.

Are you happy to be the applicator to someone else?

Are you happy to be effective in your role, to enable someone else to fulfill their calling and destiny?

Are you okay with being on the side of someone else’s show.

Are you okay with being the King, right before the best King?

Will you be okay with stepping back and allowing the next generation their rightful place, right ahead of you.

Don’t be a King Saul.

Be a humble Joseph.

Be a humble man, who takes no light. A humble man who desires not to stand in the spot light himself. But he who purposefully incurs rejection and ridicule, for the next one to come, for the next one to take his rightful place.

Mary’s husband Jospeh was an applicator.

He gave way and made way for the destiny to come after him.

1 Samuel 18: 28 & 29

28When Saul realised that the LORD was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David, 29Saul became still more afraid of him, and he remained his enemy for the rest of his days.

Wow. Imagine, Saul made himself the enemy, of who he knew God was placing next after him.

Saul could have done many things, upon realising the Lord was with David, he could have joined Gods cause, he could have put down his bitter resentment and jealousy and walked with David, teaching him and supporting him as the next King, but he made himself David’s enemy. David’s adversary for no reason other than David being the next best.

What a waste of a beautiful opportunity to participate in what God was doing for Israel.

Friend, don’t be bitter. Be a supporter. Come and join what you see Gods hand upon. Had Saul chosen differently, we don’t know how God might have changed the end to his story.

Luke 2:22 & 23

22When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord’b),

Joseph presented to God, Jesus, a son not of his own flesh. A successor not from his own body. A main man, who he stood on the sidelines for.

Joseph protected the vulnerable infant, Joseph defended the baby and sheltered him until it was time for Jesus to be released into his destiny.

In a world of male dominance we read of Joseph less than Mary. In a book 📕 whose main man is Jesus, we see very little of his applicator, his human father, the man who taught him to walk and talk, who probably taught him to read the laws.

He made way, for the one to come.

Joseph, a beautiful example of a well done 👏 ‘before’ the one who would be great.