There is a quote from Corrie Ten Boom that I’ve been reading lately:
‘Every experience God gives us, every person He puts into our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.’ Considering that she is a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, that is a pretty amazing quote!
Something came to light recently that is an ‘opportunity for trust.’ This morning I was thinking of the situation and feeling pressure to decide upon a course of action, a path to take, words to say. The Holy Spirit then clearly reminded me of His recent lesson for me: Trust the dance. I will lead. I will show you the way. Rest in My peace. All will be well.
All will be well. What a wonderful God we have!
Truth is an amazing thing. It can come to us as a calming, sweet recognition or it can be an intense, painful laser beam of light, exposing things we did not want to see. Either way, knowing the truth and being willing to walk in its reality is a beautiful thing. It leads to freedom.
Didn’t Christ say, ‘the truth shall make you free?’ Isn’t He truth with a capital T? If we walk in truth ~ however difficult it may be to admit or see ~ all will be well if we submit ourselves to the Truth.
I love literary analogies. Have you ever read The Velveteen Rabbit? It was one of my favorite childhood stories. It’s all about becoming real. The Velveteen Rabbit was not able to become real until life experiences made him that way. His fur was rubbed off through being hugged tight by the boy who owned him. He was thrown on a fire to be burned because of exposure to germs. But in the end, out of the ashes, came a real bunny. His wish came true.
Isn’t that how it is with us? God uses all experiences in our lives to help us become real. He shapes and molds us, often through pain, to become the people He envisions us to be.
All will be well.
Another literary analogy I love is from CS Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where a boy has turned into a dragon because of selfishness. The Christ figure in the book, Aslan, turns him back into a boy, but only by painfully removing the dragony scales with his claws. Ouch! But pain is often necessary for transformation. And Christ will always redeem pain if we allow it. The boy had to willingly submit himself to Aslan’s claws.
All will be well.
I will leave you with one of my favorite analogies, one from The Last Battle, also by CS Lewis. The book is about the end of time. Aslan, the Christ figure, has returned to Earth and those who love him have an opportunity to enter Heaven. There are some hard-edged, hard-nosed dwarves who think they are in a dark, smelly stable when in reality they are surrounded by the peaceful beauty of Heaven. Aslan lays a beautiful feast for them, delicious food that they eat, but perceive as rotted apples and dirty straw. Aslan speaks words of love to them, but they hear it as the roar of a fearsome beast. In the end, sadly, there is nothing Aslan can do as the dwarves have chosen to ignore the truth.
May we be not like those dwarves, but may we always respond to truth by recognizing the Truth. What we perceive as a painful reality may in fact be Truth calling us to the beauty of the future.
All will be well.
Trust.
10 comments:
Good post. I love the story of The Velveteen Rabbit. I haven't read it for so long, but I remember that it always brought tears to my eyes! Now that you've reminded me of it, I'd like to find it and read it again.
I just love the idea of the rough patches in life serving to make us "real." God bless you, Elizabeth!
I love The Velveteen Rabbit. I still can't read it without crying. In fact, I wrote a short story inspired by it.
These are beautiful thoughts, Esther. I love your literary analogies, and your emphasis on the need to trust His leading instead of our own.
Heather, would it be possible to read your story? Do you have it posted anywhere?
Annakristine, thanks muchly - I love them, too!
PS I meant I love literary analogies in general (not tooting mine!). :)
OMIGOSH - if I was any more real right now I would be translucent...thank you for reminding me of my purpose. Love you - Leslie
Very nice meditation, Esther; I like the refrain of "all will be well" -- those are some of the most sense-making words available to us.
Also... you asked me to let you know when/if I ventured an experiment with stream of consciousness in nonfiction. It's posted at burnettstories.
Awesome way to get to the Truth; and indeed ... if we Let go and Let GOD ... all things will end well. But we often get tired of waiting for 'GOD's time. Thanks for reminding us. I also liked reading the Velveteen Rabbit to our girls. The boys were not into that kind of 'stuff'. xxxooo Cajun Sissy
Dear Esther, thank you for the encouragement of this post which means a lot to me at this time. Having had a worrying and anxious January and feeling more than a little overwrought, it was with a smile of recognition and a little jolt of joy that I found your post title "all will be well" - and the perfect synchronicity of it when I needed it most, I thank you from the bottom of my heart :)
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