A few months ago, we bought a new shower curtain. We had changed the color of the bathroom, and seafoam green didn’t fit anymore.

We found the new one at Walmart. It came with new hooks for the curtain and the liner, metal ones, bent into a “s” shape. I installed them and cleaned and donated the old, plastic circle ones.

The new hooks looked fine, but almost every time I opened or closed the curtain, one or more would come unhooked. More accurately, the curtain would come off the hook.

I’d shake my head and fix things.

After several weeks, I said to Nancy, “Those don’t work very well.” She said that she shared my frustration. And I still didn’t do anything.

After a couple more weeks, we visited two discount stores and a thrift shop. Nothing but hooks. Finally, we found a store that had what we were looking for. As soon as we got home, I replaced them.

Tuesday morning, when the curtain closed smoothly, I thought about why it took so long to make the change. It would be easy to say about this, as some of us do about other situations, “Maybe God is trying to teach me a lesson.”

Maybe I was supposed to learn that I needed to slow down, to be more deliberate about life. Then I wouldn’t make the curtain jump off the hook. Maybe I was supposed to value the old ways, like old plastic circles, rather than new metal hooks. Maybe we shouldn’t have redecorated and this was a daily reminder of that extravagance.

But maybe this isn’t a lesson from God at all.

Maybe sometimes you stop trying to find meaning or a lesson and just go buy new curtain holders.

And maybe you know exactly what I mean. Go shopping.