Who knew someone would make up a game of an elephant blowing butterflies out of his upright trunk for you to catch with a net! Well, someone did. You love this game, and you are very excited to play it when we get it out. But the excitement is short-lived, as you start to get pretty frustrated. Catching those light-as-a-feather paper butterflies shooting out the top of the four foot elephant's trunk is a feat even for me! I watched today as you became more and more frustrated at the unpredictability of the game, eyes glued, net in place, ready to snatch. I couldn't help but think about how life brings us to feel this way so often. I am excited and thinking I'm up for a new challenge or a new opportunity, when the butterfly that seemed to be easily landing ever so gently into my net, suddenly and unexpectedly darts a slight right. Oops. Missed that one. I try again. I fail again. I look down with shoulders slumped. Meanwhile, other butterflies are darting out the top, falling this way and that, and I'm missing my next chance because I'm defeated and discouraged. Why try? While I watched you give it your all, over and over again, I cheered you on, 'You can do it!' 'Keep looking!' 'Here comes one!' I kept encouraging you not to give up. Soon you were hunched over again, and you would take your eyes off the target, missing the opportune butterfly waiting to fall your way. I could feel your pain. Trying to encourage you that it was only a game, and to try and have fun going for it, I thought to myself how typical this felt. How many times do we feel like giving up? Not every butterfly works out the way we want it to. Some get carried away on purpose and were never meant to land in our net. That's God's way of looking after us. Some get stolen by the enemy's schemes. Some are missed because we weren't paying attention, but looking down in disappointment over the last failed attempt. We have to be ready for what God has for us. Looking up. This is what it means to enter into God's rest. We have our eyes fixed on the right "place" (Jesus), and our hearts are in the game, not lost. In other words, we don't lose heart. We have to work in cooperation with the Holy Spirit to catch all that comes to our way in His grace and favor and time. Every opportunity to love, to minister, to serve, to work, to enjoy comes in seasons and in waves. Not everything will happen as we expect it to, but in our trust in Him we find rest. Always. Period. This peace surpasses what our mind can comprehend when we set our hearts like flint. like Jesus. We work and strive, but with joy and with gratitude. We fall down sometimes, and moments are stolen, but we keep going forward, protected by His wings of grace. As I cheer you on, in games and in life, I will strive to stay in this rest myself, for I know it's the best kind of dwelling.
I'm glad you we got to play this game together. Even though you quit after 3 rounds, I know you'll want to play again. And I'll be there rooting for you.
Love,
Mommy
"I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:14
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9
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