The folks at National Day Calendar will celebrate anything! Today is National Tape Measure Day. Allow me a moment to get my foot in the door and inch my way towards a spiritual application that I hope will measure up! I’ll just take a fraction of your valuable time. Okay… I’ll stop with the corny puns. Let’s talk about the history of the tape measure.
“The first patent for a steel tape measure was granted in 1829 in Britain to a man named James Chesterman. Chesterman made “flat wire,” a material used to create crinoline hoop skirts, which had recently fallen out of fashion.”1 His tape measure had a serious drawback, though. It cost $17. Now, while that doesn’t seem like much, remember, this is 1829. According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator, $1 in 1829 would have the purchasing power of $33.77 today.2 That means the tape measure would have cost $574.09 today. I’m pretty sure those tape measures weren’t flying off the shelf!
“Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, Connecticut made the lives of carpenters, electricians, seamstresses, and countless other tradesmen and craftsmen easier. On July 14, 1868, Fellows was granted a patent for “Improvements in Tape Measures” that created a whole new era for measurement. Enter the generation of retractable tape measures.”3 Today, our tape measures are based off of Fellows’ design and we have him to thank for his ingenious invention.
And, this is why today, July 14, is National Tape Measure Day.
The great thing about a tape measure is that if I buy a Stanley tape measure in Ohio, someone else has DeWalt tape measure in Florida, a Texan has a Lufkin tape measure, and a Californian has a Bosch tape measure, 1-5/8 inches will always be the same 1-5/8 inches. The standard is always going to be the same and they won’t be a 1/32 off.
Now, if all these companies decided to invent their own tape measures and created
their own standard of an inch, we would have a mess on our hands! It would be impossible for anything to be uniform without a standard of measurement.
Unfortunately, one of the things Christians do is to measure themselves against other Christians. This is the original Sunday sporting event. However, there is a warning given in 2 Corinthians 10:12, “For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.”
As we go to church today, we must remember that our standard of measurement is not our fellow brother or sister in Christ. We are not supposed to compare ourselves to them. Yes, their life can serve as an inspiration or challenge to us where we may be lacking or weak. But they are not the standard, and we are never told that we must measure up to the Apostle Paul, John the Beloved, Sister Sally, or Brother Ben.
Romans 8:29 says, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Jesus is our standard, our yardstick, our tape measure. His standard always remains constant, a truth we must never forget. We are to compare ourselves only to Him.
1 Peter 1:15-16 leaves us with this closing thought to consider. “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; (16) Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
1https://www.backthenhistory.com/articles/the-history-of-the-tape-measure
2https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1829?amount=1
3https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-tape-measure-day-july-14
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