Working on editing the current manuscript, with its changes, rearranging, and challenges in plot has got me thinking about trying to smooth wrinkles out of bed coverings or in covering a poster or paper with clear contact paper, or a shelf or box with contact paper. As one smoothes in one area new wrinkles pop up in others. One must keep going over the material, sometimes multiple times, keep pressing down and outwards, returning to areas already smoothed and going forward to areas that are getting more ruffled. Sometimes changes near the end mean going back toward the beginning because something there doesn't work anymore. Making changes in one spot affects the flow of other areas. One wants one's readers to get the best, clearest experience out of reading one's work. Wrinkles are bumps, uncomfortable to experience. They must be tamed!
I think this analogy has applications to living our lives. No, we can't go back and do things differently, but the growth we experience throws new light on old and future thoughts, actions and activities. The wrinkles and bumps in our lives spread to other people and their lives. Our presents are influenced by our pasts, and past and present actions affect future events. Our lives look like great rumply, bumpy, spotty, holey, wrinkled tapestries. Thank God for His mercy, love, and forgiveness! Thank God that He exchanges our failures for Christ's righteousness! Thank God that when we are safe in Heaven, there will be no "spot or wrinkle!" Ever see a wrinkled bed or flawed manuscript unwrinkle or repair themselves? Ever see contact paper smooth itself out? The process of perfection must be carried out by external means. We, unlike unmade beds, are not inanimate objects. We must submit ourselves to God for this work that only He can do.