I knew it was going to happen the minute my two-year-old climbed the rock wall ladder and disappeared up into the twisted tubing of the restaurant’s two-story indoor playground.

Six minutes later, shrieks from high above, amplified by the intricate system of tunnels, alerted me to my toddler’s change of mind.

The playground was no longer fun, and she wanted out — immediately.

Perhaps she also saw the value of my wise words: “Don’t go too high.”

I sighed.

Navigating the twists and turns of the plastic tunnels as an adult would have been tricky enough.

However, I was also eight months pregnant.

As I began my ungraceful ascent to my crying child, I realized I was one narrow passageway away from needing saving myself.  

I did, in fact, rescue the wee one and bring her back down to safety.

I deserved a plaque on the wall for my efforts, or a hot fudge sundae at the very least.

Fun over, I packed her and her siblings up, then headed to the car to drive home to the rest of the morning.

Lunch was still hours away.

When my kids were little, responding to their pleas for assistance in getting out of pickles was a full-time job.

Unsticking their glued-together fingers, freeing life and limb from overstuffed snow gear, and coaching them from the other side of a closed door on how to back up from it so I could let them out was my daily work.  

To adults, the helplessness of childhood feels bothersome.

To God, it’s the ticket to eternal life.

In Matthew 18:3, Jesus tells us, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Unlike kids who cry out for help, grown-ups tend to conceal, explain away, or ignore their problems rather than running to God for assistance.

How many times have I stuffed down uncomfortable feelings from unresolved problems by throwing myself into the arms of my favorite streaming app instead of my most loving Father?

More often than baking show hosts have commented on “soggy bottoms” in under-baked pies.

And what does it get me?

Dark circles under my eyes and absolutely zero solutions.

God has something so much more efficacious for dealing with our problems than an app.

To win our confidence in His omnipotence, He gave us an expert de-pickler in Our Lady, Undoer of Knots.

An 18th-century Baroque painting by German painter Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner captures the essence of this Marian devotion.

In the painting, Mary lovingly unties knots in a white ribbon, which symbolize the tough situations we find ourselves in due to sin and difficult life events.  

Smoothing out problems is no side hustle for Our Lady, either. It’s a full-time job, as any parent of little ones knows.

The next time we find ourselves in a pickle, let’s take up Our Lady on her anytime, anywhere offer to help and give her the whole mess.

It’s ok if the situation is our fault. It’s even expected, to be honest.

She’ll sort it out, even the most seemingly impossible problem, guiding us out of trouble and back into peace.

No streaming service necessary.

“Blessed Virgin Mary, through your grace, your intercession and by your example, deliver us from evil and untie the knots that keep us from uniting with God, so that once free from every confusion and error, we may find Him in all things, have Him in our hearts, and serve Him always in our brothers and sisters.”  — From the “Prayer to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots”