Ever seeking the rainbow behind the clouds, I must share one more Christmas Day Flood story with you (without promising it will be the last!).
In all the moving about of furniture during the restoration, I dropped the hobnail glass shade of a precious antique lamp that was my mother's onto the tile bathroom floor. You can imagine the sound of shattering glass that echoed in my heart. I was devastated, of course, but immediately turned to EBay to search for a replacement. After perusing many options, I decided on the perfect match, ordered it, and eagerly anticipated its arrival. How heartbroken I was upon picking up the box to hear the unmistakable clinking of broken glass. My excited heart fell. When I opened it, though, I exclaimed, "Well no wonder!" as I found that the packaging and padding was minimal, certainly not sufficient for so fragile an object to travel hundreds of miles through the mail system. (See photo on the right, above.)
It took a few days for my spirits to recover well enough to begin my search anew. I found another, though, and prayerfully, hopefully ordered it. As quickly as promised, the package arrived, and I was encouraged that the box felt strong and I heard no telltale tinkling. As I carefully opened it (with not a little trepidation, I admit), I was amazed to find a second tightly packed box inside the first. Again I painstakingly unsealed the second one, only to find a THIRD box I needed to unwrap! And inside that one, padded lovingly with more cardboard, newspaper, and other ordinary materials, was an unbroken Fenton hobnail lampshade. (See photo above left.) What joy! It was perfect, and whole, and my lamp now glows beautifully on my dresser.
When I contemplate that experience and those two packages, I can't help seeing a striking illustration of a lesson it's taken me a lifetime of mistakes to learn: a fragile heart that is placed in thin, unreliable packaging will undoubtedly be shattered by the rough handling of this world, while a heart wrapped in "full armor" will arrive at its destination able to fulfill its purpose and shine its light wherever it is placed. What is this "full armor"? I believe it's no accident that the second lamp shade was sealed in three boxes. I can't help relating it to the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If we trust the Father, our Creator Who loves us (Genesis 1:1, 27), accept His Son Jesus as the Redeemer He gave for our sins (John 3:16); then inside us will live the Holy Spirit, His Advocate, to guide us and comfort us on our daily walk (John 14:26). Our hearts will then be safe until we go to live with Him forever and our enemies have been destroyed. NO MORE BROKEN HEARTS!!!
But until that time, we'll be tossed about, and perhaps even broken, by a sin-filled world. And without this armor we ourselves succumb to our own sinful nature, born in all of us since the Garden of Eden. How can we be sure we are protected from Satan's attacks? God has given us the answer in His Word, in the passage so familiar to many of us:
"For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation [Yeshua] and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God."
(Ephesians 6:13-17 CSB)
With this promised protection we are by no means guaranteed freedom from worldly attacks to our body, mind, and spirit, just like both lampshades were undoubtedly tossed about in the mail before arriving at my home. We ARE guaranteed, however, to come through such attacks, so that like my lamp, we can shine God's light wherever we are placed.
"He must increase and I must decrease."
John 3:30
✝️
No comments:
Post a Comment