My youngest son Beckett was laying in the orthodontist’s chair. I was a casual observer standing in the corner with an obvious parental interest in the process. He was wearing a cheap pair of Ray-Ban lookalike sunglasses that were given to him before he lay down to protect his eyes from the glare of the medical light overhead. The ortho assistant was using two spoon like tools to pull the sides of his mouth open so she could get a good look at the progress. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit at the sight of his tiny braces and their purple rubber bands.
They had done a good job with the atmosphere in the office. It was open, modern, and kid friendly. There were some of those quirky 3D printed puzzle-like fidget toys on the magazine table in the lobby, and there was a Sony Playstation with bean bag chairs in the corner of the treatment room. It was being put to good use. Fortnite. It was a good vibe. I found myself tapping my toes to the positive pop playing over the sonos speakers. “Man,” I thought. “I wish my experience with braces was like this.”
I snapped out of it as, in a whirl, the orthodontist swapped himself into the chair at Beckett’s side assessing the progress for himself through his multilayered spectacles. He looked at the computer monitor and then at Beckett’s mouth. The truth is not long ago Beckett’s x-rays looked like an alien invasion. There were teeth above and below the surface coming in at every imaginable angle. I’m sure the doctor had considered him a “project” upon arrival. He was now about three-quarters of the way through the process, and currently there was some semblance of order from the chaos, but I could tell he wasn’t quite out of the woods. The orthodontist felt around Beckett’s mouth for a moment making a few indistinguishable sounds under his breath. Then I heard it. In a quick and decisive move, he looked at his assistant and said the words, “power chain.” Then he promptly patted Beckett on the head and bid us both adieu with a smile before moving on to his next patient.
Things were set in motion. The assistant sat back down in the chair, repositioned the giant light, and went to work with a tray of pointy instruments and an assortment of colored rubber bands at her fingertips. Beckett opted for purple yet again.
Power chain defined:
“…continuous, interconnected rubber bands used in braces to apply steady, unified pressure across multiple teeth. They primarily close gaps, fix crooked teeth, and correct bite issues much faster than traditional individual elastic ties.” (What Are Power Chain Braces? A Patient’s Guide to the Most Misunderstood Part of Treatment)
Did you catch that? Steady unified pressure…across multiple teeth. The purpose of the positive pop music and video games in the treatment room all snapped into focus. I watched as she stretched the purple rubber bands across the front of his bracketed smile. Beckett’s neck muscles flexed in resistance to the force applied. I knew what was coming; I’m pretty sure he did too. A few hours later all five of the Olson’s sat around the dinner table and watched Beckett shift his food back and forth on his plate with his knife and fork as he quietly moaned. He was dealing with the unavoidable ache of change in his mouth. His teeth were shifting in his head. I hated it. He hated it more. The power chain was at work.
Agility is a natural attribute of the young and flexible. I’ve seen my young Beckett daringly skip from rock to rock amidst a swiftly moving North Carolina mountain stream. Each jump bolstered his sense of confidence for the next bigger and riskier move. He showed his metal clad teeth betraying his inner sense of adventure along the way with a daring look in his eye. I found myself in awe of him as I stood there in safety, stationary on the stream’s edge. I winced a few times as the jumps got longer. “Don’t fall in the drink!” I shouted. A little part of me was envious.
The truth is we can lose the desire to embrace possibility with time. We stop taking leaps. We start taking elevators. We become more sedentary. We become less buoyant. But then there is God. He is consistently and curiously at work in the Spirit for the renewal of our inner man through the application of pressure and change. Crazy things happen in the crucible of pressure and change. An old dead walking staff starts to bud with beautiful flowers. A dumb donkey becomes a prophet speaking Truth. Dirty hand-washing water turns to world class wine, and hearts once made of stone become tender and fleshy. What’s happening? He is graciously looking at the crookedness of our lives and envisioning gloriously ordered things. The Spirit is hovering over the waters making sense of it all. If we had our druthers, we would prefer that he left us alone in our attrition. He won’t, it’s not His way. Instead, in kindness He applies pressure and change to conform us into the image of his Son over time. Sometimes more than others. It’s the unavoidable power chain of grace, and we are encouraged to embrace it.
“…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5 ESV)
Suffering producing endurance producing character producing hope. Not just any hope, but one that doesn’t put us to shame…because the motive is love in the Spirit. It’s an ironclad guarantee stamped and sealed in Christ himself. It helps us to know this kind of thing when we have knife and fork in hand, pushing the food on the plate of our life around trying to make sense of it all.
Beckett is eleven years old. He’s due to get his braces off by the end of the summer. By the time he hits his first year of middle school in August he’s on pace to have a movie star smile (just in time for a burgeoning interest in the opposite sex, I might add). He’s already good lookin’. He could be a force to be reckoned with in a very short time.
Thank God for the power chain.
If you find yourself in the crucible of pressure and change like I am would you pray with me:
God, I confess that I’m uncomfortable. A lot of my discomfort is rooted in fear. I hate pressure and change. Will you remind me today of your good intentions in the middle of the ache? Would it be possible for you to give me faith enough to embrace where I am with a sense of possibility and adventure? Maybe enough to even take a few risky leaps in the middle of the rushing mountain stream? I ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
“What Are Power Chain Braces? A Patient’s Guide to the Most Misunderstood Part of Treatment.” Toothbytooth.com. 2025, https://toothbytooth.com/power-chain-braces/. 26 May 2026.
