"The Cotton Seed" storybook written by Shelley Breedlove, illustrated by Stacy Cain

THIS WEEK was Christmas, as you probably know. I had a very wonderful Christmas: on Christmas Eve I did my science fair experiment in a parking lot and shot an airsoft rifle (shoots plastic BBs for my experiment), and in the evening we watched "Miracle on 34th Street" and "It's a Wonderful Life" and we ate corned beef and cabbage with bread.
On Christmas I got to go to my grandma's house, and we had grits and egg casserole, fruit and hot chocolate, and all the babies came and made everyone happy. Yesterday I had a wonderful day at the town center with my parent while Izzy was with her friends (one is visiting from Egypt!) and Joey was at Uncle Danny's house. It was a miraculously beautiful day, and I saw a knot of rainbow in the clouds near the sun while the sky was still blue.
Today I want to share with you a storybook that came in the mail: It was illustrated by my Aunt Stacy and written by her twin sister, Shelley, when they were younger. My mom said she's buy a copy, and it turned up in the mail. It's called "The Cotton Seed," and I'm going to 'read' it to you. But it has a copyright, so no cheating.
"My life started in this dark, gritty place when God woke me and said, "It's time to grow." "But God, " I said, "I don't want to. It's not great down here, but it's warm and I have everything I need." God simply repeated, "It's time to grow." (turn page) So, grumbling all the way, I grew. I came to like the cool breezes and told God, "This isn't so bad." Well, I should have known better because not so long after, God spoke to me and said, "It's time to go." (turn page) "But God," I whined, "sometimes the wind hits me hard and slaps my back, but surely this is as good as it gets?" God simply repeated, "It's time to go." (turn page) So a farmer came and picked my bushy head, stuffed me in a sack with about a hundred other grumbling guys, and we were all carried to a place where we were shaken free of all our seeds and then stretched into something called thread. (turn page) Lying on the floor wrapped on my spool I mumbled, "This is okay." I quickly shut my mouth tight but it was too late. I winced as I heard God say, "It's time to sew." (turn page)"God, have You lost it," I excitedly screamed, "I can't sew, I'm a thread for pete's sake! All the other stuff at least made sense, but this I can't do!" "It's time to sew." God patiently repeated. "Oh, all right, if that's what You want." I agreed. (turn page) No sooner did I say this than I was picked up and attached to a loom where I began to bw used in the design. "God," I said softely, "not that I'm complaining, but how am I going to be important or special in this? I've always been at least a little different, but there are so many of us no one will ever see me now." (turn page) God softly answered, "since the beginning you have fought Me and told me that you knew what was best, and even though at this very moment you can't see the importance of your place, you are part of a great design." (turn page) I did not argue, but simply sighed. For a long time the loom worked and more threads were added. With each thread I sighed at how tiny I was. Finally the loom stopped and we were removed and hung on a wall. (turn page) Across from the wall was a mirror, but I couldn't look at it because I knew it would just make me feel worse. I sighed and told myself to just be happy that this was a quiet place, but God heard my thoughts and said, "Little child, it's time to know." (turn page) "God please," I begged, "I'm unhappy enough. Just leave me alone." So, of course, He simply repeated, "Little child, it's time to know." So, though I grumbled under my breath, I looked across the room at the mirror. (turn page)There, surrounded by all the other threads, was me. Brilliant purple, zigzagging through the most beautiful picture I had ever seen. Tears began to fall as I cried, "I'm sorry! I didn't know! I didn't know!" (turn page) "Of course you didn't little one," my loving Father replied, "I didn't tell you everything because I wanted you to have faith in Me." "But God, I didn't have faith. I fought You the whole way! I don't deserve this!" I sobbed. (turn page) He replied, "Of course you don't. I gave it to you freely because I love you." Shocked dry of tears by His words, I said what I should have been saying from the beginning. Simply, "I love You." "Thank You." " (end, and remember there's a copyright and I don't want to get in trouble)
Man, I really like this story. It's about us, and it's about God. Every time we get comfortable with a situation, God has somewhere else He wants to take us. Notice every time he does that, we are unhappy about it because it's not easy. It's hard to leave where we are and what we do and who we're with, but He calls us nonetheless. And once we say, "Fine, have it You're way," He does have it His way. We're in no position to stop Him from doing anything. Notice also that once we accept what His plan has for us to be doing and experiencing, we realize "This isn't so bad." It's better than where we were before, even if we don't know it.
It's true, sometimes it's easier or harder than other times to undergo a change. And sometimeswe have to stop thinking about what we've lost to realize we've gained much more. I wrote this last night: "Sometimes the Lord takes down on tree so you can see the birds' nest in the next. Sometimes, the Lord takes down one mountain so you can see the sunrise coming up between two more." Lately He's been teaching me that He really does have a wonderful plan going on, and a place for me, and each of us, to fit into it. If the cotton seed was content to stay it the dirt and ignore God, he'd never be in that amazing picture. He'd be useless there. God give us opportunities to learn things and be conditioned for what His plan holds. We're all part of it.
If you haven't seen this old film "It's a Wonderful Life," I strongly suggest you see it. It's technically a Christmas movie, so now's the bes time to try and find it. It makes it pretty clear that people have a very important purpose and a strong influence on other people. Without this or that person doing as he or she ought to do, things are gonna be different. So God works things out very, very beautifully so that there's a big picture. We can't see it, that's true, and the only thing we can do is trust Him and quit complaining. Even if we do complain, at the end we'll just be as startled as the cotton seed, amazed that GOD loves us. Us? Us! Little, whiny, dirty, needy us. He's going to clean us and grow us and teach us and use us, because He mad eus and He knows that we are beautiful and He can useful. After all, that is one of those amazing things only God does: He takes nothing and turns it into something, and something wonderful. He takes few and turns it into more than enough. He takes a cotton seed and makes it part of a lovely design. He takes sinners and makes them into people like the apostle Paul!
Well, then, let's not complain. I'm personally pretty excited to find out what the Lord has planned for me. I'm probably going to start whining when the time actually comes to start "growing" or "going," but for now I'm praying for strength to stand and endure in my faith in him during a time that is not so comfortable for me. This I pray for all of us Christians. We are part of something beautiful, a grce having been opened to all the believers of the world. It's a turbulent sea but the reward is great, so we should support and help each other, reminding each other not to "grumble" but to trust God. He really does have the best plan.

'Focus' on Christ.

THIS WEEK my brother and my dad went with my uncle and my cousin to see a basketball game in Orlando, Florida. That left me, my mom and my sister at home for the afternoon and the evening. I had a wonderful time: Mom had to visit 3 Sisters' Chocolate and Cakery on San Jose Boulevard about a wedding cake they couldn't do (so they needed her to make it) and she bought us some chocolate, which was quite delicious. Later we went to Whole foods and bought an interestingly various and delicious set of products: a pomegranate, some almond butter, a block of parmesan cheese, two bags of really nice chips, etc.
But apart from this snatch of my rather interesting and joy-filled life, I'd like to share with you an interesting item I saw at Whole Foods. Focus Beads - colorful, pretty bracelets that are supposed to help you by making you 'focus' on something you want. There was a square sign with square photos of beads representing each kind of bracelet, each saying, "Focus on..." followed by something like "Hope," "Love," "Inner Strength," and even "Forgiveness." Upon noticing these I remarked to my mother and my sister as I ran my finger in a square past all the pictures, "Look at all the things people need, and they think they can get them from beads."
The beads were beautiful in appearance, and their textures and colors looked like somebody had been careful to match them to the thing they were suppoesed to get you. I could not help but be fascinated that there were all these things that people long for in their hearts and consciously seek after in their lives, laid out and listed, and they can all be fulfilled by faith in Jesus Christ!
Thinking about it now, I can even remember a time when I thought such things were worth a shot, as if there were anything to it. Any time when I trusted in rocks or plastic, my faith was simply not very strong at all, and I was heavily distracted with my own plans and desires. Now that I have learned more about all the assurance that can be found in Jesus (and only have more to learn about) I realize how shameful it is: to rely on beads or any other idol is to build your house on the sand. It blows away, and bracelets break, and hearts break, and only God can put the pieces back together correctly, so that a fall only brings His servant closer to Him.
I propose that we Focus on Christ, because focusing on what we want to have does not give it to us, as we can trust neither in our own selves nor in the temporary, worldly things we find in stores. Christmas is a wonderful reminder of this great Gift our God has given to us, "For God so loved the world [that's us] that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever belives in Him shall not perish but have everlasting Life." (John 3:16, as you may or may not know) We should try to keep this reminder from the time we wake up every morning, all year long.
The best part is that we don't need beads or anything else on our exterior to "Focus on" Jesus. He's better than beads, because He does not depend on us and He does not ever break. He is what keeps us from breaking, and He can be fully relied upon, unlike anything else. Only God is completely reliable.

Love - Christmas.

THIS WEEK was the first week of Christmas break. I know I already posted on Friday, but that was just an intro. I still have more to tell you!
I haven't even told you that my beautiful baby cousin Maya came over on Thursday evening and stayed overnight. Every time I see her she knows more words, and this time she was walking around everywhere, and begging for ice cream with her mouth open as wide as she could expand it, with her six little teeth. She's just such a delightful baby, she's a joy to everyone she meets. And I'm thankful that God put her in our family safe and healthy and sweetiful.
But back to the subject I want to tell you about. I was at my mom's cake shop the other day and I got bored, so I started looking through a Martha Stuart Living Magazine. And what do you know, Jesus hit me there, too. There was a Blackberry ad in there (of all things) and here's what it said:
"Don't just like.
LIKE is watered-dowm love.
Like is mediocre.
Like is the wishy-washy emotion of the content.
Althetes don't do it for the like of a sport.
Artists don't suffer for the like of art.
There is no I like NY T-shirt.
And Romeo didn't just like Juliet.
LOVE. Now That's powerful stuff.
Love changes things.
Upsets things.
Conquers things.
Love is at the root of everything good that has ever happened and will ever happen.
LOVE what you do."
Can you believe that was a Blackberry ad? Such a profound description of love, applied to a phone! I think whoever wrote this must have read 1 Corithians 13 before somewhere. But it's true! "Love is at the root of everything good that has ever happened and will ever happen." So I read this and I'm praying, 'Jesus, You hit me in the most unexpected places.'
Love is really awesome, isn't it, Christians? Pastor Russ likes to describe God's love this way: He is chasing us and chasing us with everything, using every way to reach us when we are headed straight for hell, and He wants so much to take us back up in His arms and keep us safe from the danger we are getting ourselves into that He has His own Son come to this earth to give us the most obvious and clear demonstration of His Love. HE loves us so very much that HE is willing to do that, because He wants us to want His company, and to turn back from where we are going and come back to Him.
Amen. Love really is great. And this really is what Christmas is about, Charlie Brown. It's about this love being given to a world that can never earn it but which needs it, and whose Creator cares enough to give it freely.
Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

My first entry - Hello!

THIS WEEK I have alot to tell you.
Last Saturday I went to my Youth Group's Christmas party, and I realized how much I love those people. I only met them a month and a half ago since I've been going to Southpoint Community Christian Church, and they've made me feel so welcome. It's like I have thirty new family members.
I am grateful to the Lord that He has led my family to this new church, where He gives Pastor Russ such relevant, useful words to say. He's been doing a series pertaining to "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens (This is on my recommended books list! I was reading it just as he started this series.). Last week was the sermon on how our past experiences mess with us for a long time, and how they weigh on our mentalities. This week was about the present - how there is no time like it. We need to start being the Christians God is calling us to be, right now, because tomorrow is too late for somebody in the world, and procrastination is the best way to get absolutely nothing done.
On the way home from the Christmas party, I had heard a song called "A City on our Knees" by Tobymac. Look this song up. It is about getting started right now in reaching the world.
It starts "If we gotta start somewhere why not here? If we gotta start somewhere why not now?" And it's very catchy.
What gets me is that this song comes into my life right before Pastor Russ was talking about the present. I don't believe in coincidences!
On Wednesday I met with my youth group, and youth pastor Ryan referred to Daniel chapter three. King Nabuchanezzar (NEB-oo-kad-NEZ-arr) built a golden idol and forced everybody to bow to it. But three of the Jews would not, so he tossed them in a fire, and they were not burned. They were not burned! Read it.
Pastor Ryan told us about how we need to keep from bowing the the idols in the world around us, which may include the temptation to want acceptance, to try a destructive habit, or really to bow to any temptation. In short, to disobey a commandment. So we all prayed, promising not to bow to anyone or anything that will separate us from our God, who is the only One we should be bowing to.
So I'm all fired up and stuff. I am very grateful for a copy of the Word, and for a wonderful, musical church full of love and purpose, and for opportunities to use my talents for something worthwhile. I am grateful that I'm in on the greatest thing that ever happened to humanity.
Anyway, the push I've got from this call to act in the present, and to live a faithful servant in the now, makes me want to start a blog now. I've been thinking about it, and now I'm doing it. I'm recommending books to you, and telling you about all the things that my amazing God is amazing me with this week, and I'm not even done!
Come to think of it, I can't be done. Just come look again soon to see what else I've got to share with you. Please give me suggestions, if you have them!