It’s Sunday and by the nature of Sunday, I have plenty of time to think and organize and read and paint and dream. It is beautiful. We are studying Romans in the Sunday school class I am teaching and today after reading Romans 5 over, I was reminded of a wise notion from C.S. Lewis.

“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at sea. We are far to easily pleased“.

-C.S. Lewis

I don’t get it half the time; I don’t comprehend His holiness, His mercy or His abounding grace. I don’t get the so much, much more we are offered and reminded of in Romans 5. I settle for the things of the world, for the mundane, for the limited nature of science or earthly treasures. I forget how BIG my God is. I don’t worship a little, limited God; I serve an awesome, huge, all-powerful, sovereign, nothing is impossible, miracle-working God. (and so much more).

I was hit with a word picture today that floored me. I love word pictures; they satisfy the psych major in me and the visual thinker. I try to use them as much as possible; with the kids I teach at preschool, in relationships, etc. Someone shared with me the process of refining gold today. For a bible study, they had been studying how God refines us in the fire. To better understand the physical analogy of the gold process, they took a trip to a refinery (Is that a word? Just work with me here….) Someone asked, “How do you know when the gold is ready? What tells you when it is finished?” The worker replied, “when I see my own reflection in the pool of gold, I know it is ready”. They know it is ready and done when their reflection can be seen! WOW. God will know when we are refined when He sees the image of Christ staring back at Him. He is pushing and sending us in through the fire so that we may be refined to the point He sees His own image shining back just as it is in the physical process. What an incredibly rich word picture. I am so glad I learned that today. Did you know that? Marvel at it.  

Don’t get me wrong, I am far too easily pleased sometimes and I know I will be again and again. I will adore a new bead for my Pandora bracelet, I will sip another amaretto on the rocks, and think it is grand. But, I want to know the so much more we are offered. I am trying to let go of my finite tendencies and let His infinite abilities work through me.

love to you all and Happy Superbowl Sunday!

-jengadi jean