Melted
Later in the day Calvin decided he wanted to finish melting our crayons. I asked him why he was so sad before and all he could say was that he didn't want the crayons broken or melted. And he got kinda mad at me about asking, so I think he was embarrassed.
I just can't pass up the image, as simplistic as it may be. But this whole process is like a little picture of life on this imperfect earth. Sometimes we are left broken and stripped clean. Used up and hardly good for anything. Forgotten at the bottom of the crayon bucket.
And then something happens for reasons inexplicable to us. We are set apart. Plucked out of the lint at the bottom of the bucket. Gathered together with other brokenness, perhaps. And then, and then!, the heat is turned up.
But I don't want to be broken! But I don't want to be melted! The sorrow and the sadness overwhelm us. Stop, we plead. Take us out of here. I don't want to be melted. But the process has already started.
Our hearts are melting within us.
If we let the process come to completion we end up with something new in the end. It's different. But it's beautiful. It shows the effects of being broken and heated. But it's usable. It is constitutionally the same, but yet very different. And that difference is obvious.
I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.1 Peter 1:6-7 (The Message)
I just can't pass up the image, as simplistic as it may be. But this whole process is like a little picture of life on this imperfect earth. Sometimes we are left broken and stripped clean. Used up and hardly good for anything. Forgotten at the bottom of the crayon bucket. And then something happens for reasons inexplicable to us. We are set apart. Plucked out of the lint at the bottom of the bucket. Gathered together with other brokenness, perhaps. And then, and then!, the heat is turned up.
But I don't want to be broken! But I don't want to be melted! The sorrow and the sadness overwhelm us. Stop, we plead. Take us out of here. I don't want to be melted. But the process has already started.
Our hearts are melting within us.
If we let the process come to completion we end up with something new in the end. It's different. But it's beautiful. It shows the effects of being broken and heated. But it's usable. It is constitutionally the same, but yet very different. And that difference is obvious.I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.1 Peter 1:6-7 (The Message)
Comments
stephanie@metropolitanmama.net