Blog Background

Friday, July 30, 2010

Rich was right.

I learned something really cool this summer. Something that many of you have known for a long time. Why I never learned this as a kid, I don't know, but it ROCKS!!! Anyway, while we were at the beach, my brother-in-law, Rich, found like twenty or thirty sand dollars. He is really good at finding them (another talent of his is finding finding shark teeth). He had us each pick out one to take home with us. He also explained to me the correlation between the physical appearance of a sand dollar, and Jesus Christ. This is the cool part:


So as you can see, the sand dollar somewhat resembles the image of Jesus dying on the cross (with his hands outstretched, and his legs at the bottom). The five other points near the circumference of the sand dollar represent the nails used in his death. Finally, Rich said, if you break open a sand dollar, you will see a dove on the inside. "I can't explain it," he said. "Really," I thought, "that's crazy. I wonder what it really looks like. Maybe a weird shape that people have decided can be likened to a dove so that they can use it in a cool Christian analogy." Ha! Maybe some desperate preacher needed a good story!
WRONG

When we got home to Wilmore, sure enough, Jon David broke his on accident, and here is what we found inside:

So cool! And I am super bummed that our camera couldn't handle the tiny size. It's about as small as an engagement ring diamond (the regular size, no crazy huge rocks). To me, it almost looks like a tiny butterfly fossil or something. If you looked at it under a microscope, it would be so neat. You can see amazing detail in the wings. It really is just crazy! How God thinks up these cool things, I have no idea. What a great, yet tiny testimony of God's creation. I love how God has so many awesome ideas that we have probably not even discovered yet!

So here is the deep part. Don and I have been going through a tough season lately. Perhaps the details of our journey are best left for another post... This neat discovery of the sand dollar only happened because Jon David broke the precious one that he had chosen. Were there tears? Oh yes. And so it has been for Don and me. There have been tears. But sometimes, only through being broken can God bring forth something beautiful. I guess this must sound pretty cliche to those of you who are used to going to church a lot. I myself have heard many analogies with a similar lesson. But it meant something to me. It gives me hope. I know that God works all things together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose--from Romans 8:28. I believe Him. I believe that this verse is true. Lord, help me to overcome my unbelief!

God bless you.

2 comments:

  1. Praise God!!! What a beautiful way of showing Himself to you when you needed it.
    Mom

    ReplyDelete
  2. God IS amazing; and like you said, so creative. (Why are we constantly surprised by that?) Though I'd heard this about the sand dollar a long time ago, it's awesome to see it again through fresh eyes. Thanks, Anna!

    ReplyDelete

Labels

My Blog List