Leanne’s Shells
Ecclesiastes 3:11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end
Bloomsbury-International.com Beauty is in the eye of the beholder Margaret Wolfe Hungerford “Molly Brown” 1878
Our church has one of the school age teacher/leaders come and give a 5-10 minute chat with the youngsters before they go to the play and education area. This is always a time of cuteness for me. Their demonstrations are practical and I appreciate them, the women are awesome at the presentations, and they kids responses are adorable.
Today, one of the women presented, and her story was about how she and a friend like to collect shells while on the beach. Her friend picks up on the perfect, unbroken, unblemished ones, while the ministry educator picks up the pretty and different ones that catch her eyes. Yes, they may have a piece broken off, but the colors are rich and lovely, one was white but had a lovely rim of various shades of purple around the edge, another was broken, but had been the home of a snail, and the outer shell showed high gloss of brown and cream mixture of stripes, and there are so many others. Gorgeous white colors with pearl like effervescence, oyster shells which look like footprints…for the times God is carrying us when we are unable to walk because of our burdens and needing a rest. There were lovely gold shells, or the ones with a raspberry and cream blend running over its top, or the pure high gloss black or white stone you find. There are treasures God places on the beach for us to find.
She then went on to say that she is so glad and relieved that God does not pick just the perfect ones. (And thank goodness, since there is no perfect person, except for Jesus, our Savior). But each holds its own beauty. Part of the message to me, was notice and truly see the beauty in other things; nothing has to be perfect to be beautiful. And the other part reminded me of a bible study I am currently taking.
We are studying the Book of James, and the initial chapters concern how people tend to judge people, find them wanting for some reason and then issue a snub, a disdain toward them, and then the attitude spreads. People tend to be so quick to see negative, and feel (hope) they (we) are better than someone else. We see ourselves as being more worthy than someone else to have more…better. It might be clothing, hair style, complexion, weight, there seems to be something we can envy of others, or feel we have better, and therefore must somehow be better, more worthy. How shallow the ponds of our minds!
The children’s ministry leader reminded me in a simpler way, a child loving and presenting way, that we are NOT perfect, we are broken, but our Savior and Creator can make us new, fix us, make the broken areas better, and healed. This was an excellent example to remind us not to compare, but to see the beauty. Beauty can be found and enjoyed in something not perfect. There is a large vista all around us of beauty; kind people, lovely sky, the moods of the ocean, the sunshine, flowers, birds, and so very much more.
God is extremely generous giving us objects of beauty and blessings. Look for the beauty, even within the broken, and realize the broken can be mended by God in all manner.
I am so thankful I enjoy blessings daily, and like to share them on ‘mybellaviews.’
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