~Object 70~ A Flower

She realized today that she is a petal; we all are.  We each need one another to be as beautiful as we are meant to be.  A petal by itself is lovely, velvety and colorful, totally unique, but petals cannot live by themselves.  Petals need to be attached to each other, along with leaves and a stem in order to survive.

She was trying to figure out what the different pieces of the flower are, and a friend helped her figure that out.  The petals are people.  We need each other in order to thrive.  She has been relying on people lately like she never has before; she just needs them.  The stem is prayer, and that connects us to the water, which is God.  The stem is far more important than the other petals.  We've all seen flowers that only have two or three petals, but they are still able to do fine.  She's never seen a flower doing just fine that has no stem.  We need our stem in order to survive at all, and it causes us to blossom and bloom and flourish.

She often neglects one or both of those parts.  She will feel guilty for relying on people, or, "too busy," to pray as she ought.  Both parts are so very important, though.

How beautiful flowers are when properly taken care of!  How silly it would be to go along cutting the stems off, because they are not the prettiest part.  It would be ridiculous; yet we do it all the time.  She is constantly neglecting prayer as though she believes it doesn't matter.  Without the stem, though, the flower never blooms at all.

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Over and out,

~Emily

~Object 69~ A Piece of Candy

She has always had a sweet tooth.  She thoroughly enjoys gorging herself on chocolate, ice cream, candy.  The problem is, though, that she always wants more; she's never satisfied.  She has one piece of candy, and she wants another and another, but is never filled.

This world is so like candy.  We like it, we enjoy its taste and we want more and more and more.  But we have a void in our life that the entire world is incapable of filling.  We can eat as much as we can possibly stuff into our systems, and we will never be satisfied.

Funny that it usually takes her getting nearly sick on candy before she realizes that it's never going to satisfy.  She has called herself a fast learner most of her life, but sometimes she wonders...

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Over and out,

~Emily

~Object 68~ A Tapestry

She has been dreadfully nearsighted lately.  She looks and all she sees are a few ugly strands of thread.  They seem pointless and silly.  She looks and sees the small corner of something filled with strange colors that are not to her liking.  She sees something blurry and unknown.  She doesn't like the picture at all.

What she is failing to see is the tapestry that these pieces make up.  She sees only a square inch of the glorious masterpiece that is in the making.  She sees what is happening right now, and fails to remember that there is more to come.

God weaves our lives together, our actions together, our choices together, our mistakes together, our could-have-beens and what-ifs together.  He weaves all of this into a tapestry that is His grand story.

The pieces don't seem too beautiful by themselves.  We see a thread here, a bead there, a tassel or a button, a half-finished flower or tree.  None of this is spectacular, some of it is ugly.

Beginning to end, though, it is beautiful.

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Over and out,

~Emily

~Object 67~ Gold

She felt filthy, dirty, ugly and grimy.  She saw nothing in herself that was pure or holy, set apart or righteous.  She had had multiple people tell her recently that she was a great light, but she didn't see it at all, and the idea only confused her further.  Everything she did felt wrong.  She felt so very messed up and human.

She thought further, though, and realized that she saw the things that floated to the surface.  She saw the obvious; the mistakes, the character flaws, the break-downs and the sin.  She saw the dross.

Like gold in the midst of the heating process, she needed some refining, and God was hard at work.  He was heating and heating and heating, and the ugly things were floating to the top.

The thing about dross, though, is that it's not just meant to sit on the top of the gold, it is meant to be taken off.  This was where things got a bit more difficult.  It's one thing to recognize character flaws and ugliness, but it's an entirely different thing to do something about it.

She knows that one day God will be done refining her, and He'll take her home, but for now she is in the fire, she is being perfected, and it is hard.

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Over and out,

~Emily

~Object 66~ A Firework

They sat around a table playing cards, and listening to fireworks go off in the distance.  She had always loved them, but hadn't gone to watch them for a few years.  There was always something better to do, or they were too far.

She had seen, and been a part of, a different kind of firework recently.

She bottles things up.  Like stuffing firecrackers with gunpowder, she stores worries, anxieties, frustrations and sadness away, shoving it all deeper and deeper, fitting more and more.

Something small usually lights the fuse.  Someone does something, "wrong," or says a small, biting word, and it isn't long until she blows.

For some reason, though, joy doesn't work that way at all.  She doesn't bottle that up; there is rarely a need to.  She shares her joys, her triumphs, her fun times with the world, and there is no explosion later on.

It's so strange that the physical firework and the emotional one are so very different.  How beautiful an explosion can be in the right place...and how ugly in the wrong.

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Over and out,

~Emily

P.S. Happy Independence Day, folks!  I hope you all had a lovely day celebrating the beautiful gift of freedom.  God bless you all!

~Object 65~ Jam

The heat was turned on under the pot of frozen berries.  Slowly the ice melted, and the fruit began to soften and release juice.  She started mashing the berries, and they turned into a rich, deep sauce, which was left to itself, getting hotter.

Eventually, and after adding a few essential ingredients, the mixture was ready for the now heated jars.  She later stood back and admired the gem-like jars full of jam.

She realized then that she was just like that fruit.  She needed to be melted, heated, smashed, added to, stirred and poured in order to be what God needed her to be.

One day maybe she will look back and marvel at the smashing, melting, heating process, but she is still in the midst of it, and it's hard.

But she knows that the master, "Jammer," has the end product in mind.  He knows the beauty that will come of this.

And that alone is enough to give her some peace.

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Over and out,

~Emily

~Object 64~ A Steppingstone

The steppingstones she had been walking on were very easy.  She could see each step and knew that it was secure.  Walking on the easy path in a beautiful meadow, she was content.  Glancing at wildflowers and clouds as she walked, the even, easy path did not necessitate looking where she was going.  All was effortless.

A fog settled over her path, and she soon heard water rushing past her.  She questioned each footstep, tested each stone, looked for easier routes.  The sun hid behind thick clouds.  She couldn't see, and she was paralyzed with fear.  What if she stepped wrong?  What if the fog made the stones slick, and she fell?  She imagined the stones crossing a mighty river, and she began to tremble.

Cautiously she reached one foot out, groping for a stone.  Scared of falling, she stood still, shivering and scared.  Staying there far too long, she finally decided that she needed to do something, so she reached her foot out and placed it down again.  A stone!  She did this again and again, finally almost running across the steps.  Exhilarated, she gave up on worry and trusted that the path before her would be secure; trusted that God would place stones before her.

The fog lifted and she looked around in wonder.  The sound of water that she had heard proved to be a calm, trickling stream.  She looked down and the steps were large and sure, and she knew that her King, the master path-layer, had been in perfect control the whole time.  If only it was easier to remember this while in the fog.

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Over and out,

~Emily

~Object 63~ A Castle

She had built a castle in her head.  The structure was solid, the idea was complete, there were no problems, it was calm, and something that she thought she had control over.

She imagined the medieval castles being built a thousand years ago.  Each brick, each stone was placed just so.  The people trusted in that structure.  It was secure, it was solid, it was their protection from the unknown.  The castles crumbled, though.  Wars came, battles were fought, and many of those castles are no longer here, or are no longer solid structures.

Her castle was crumbling.  She watched as each brick fell, one by one.  Uncertain of whether she ought to feel joyful or fearful, anxiety filled her.  What was she supposed to build now?  She had begun building this structure years ago; she had relied on it, dreamed about it, clung to it like a blanket.

And it was collapsing before her eyes.

She realized that she was trying to pick the pieces up again; trying to rebuild what had been lost, but it didn't feel right.  Her structure then started to look wrong, and she almost wanted to pull more bricks down.  She was now uncertain as to which bricks ought to stay, and which really should come down.  She started doubting and second guessing herself.

"The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent."

(Exodus 14:14)

And so she gave up.  She gave up rebuilding, and she gave up tearing down.  She gave up doubting and second guessing and fearing.  She gave up caring about her castle, and she gave up hating it.  She gave up wanting a new one and she gave up clinging to the old one.  She gave up trusting in the strength of an idealistic, castle-like dream, and she turned it over to the King.

"The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; 

my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him."

(Psalm 28:7)

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Over and out,

~Emily