Hang In There!

Did you know that oysters were designed with a special glue?

Did you know that scientist have studying it for years, and just this year finally figured out its make-up?

Did you know that that glue can withstand water, temperature, and waves?

Did you know that that glue is not weakened by salt water?

And did you know that scientists are trying to figure out how to replicate this amazing compound for medical and industrial uses? But as of yet they cannot figure out how to replicate this superest of all super glues!

Forget "gorilla glue", we need to figure out how to make "oyster glue".

I think God is amazing!

I learn lots of great things as a homeschool mom. I would have never known about “oyster glue” if I wasn’t doing marine biology with my youngest students this year.

Through the years I have learned about scientists and artists. I have learned about the atmosphere and the earth’s core. I have learned about the life cycle of plants and the life cycle of nations.

And I have learned a lot about myself…but that is another post entirely.

So back to the point.

Because I tend to think in analogies, many of the things I have learned have revealed pictures of the divine to me. I guess word pictures just stick better in my mind than anything else.

So the other day, when my youngest girls and I were reading about oysters, I got a whole new appreciation of “hanging in there”.

I need to caveat this, because in another word picture moment, I was really struck about acorns and how the only way they can grow is to let go and to die. (http://whatevermylord.blogspot.com/2010/10/fruit-from-death.html)

Maybe we are supposed to do both. We have to let go, but we also have to hang on.

The difference comes in what we let go of and what we hang on to. We must let go of the world and the security we value so greatly and die to ourselves. We MUST let go of expectations, and worldliness, and sometimes even dreams and desires. That DOES involve letting go.

But then there is the other part of our spiritual walk that involves “hanging on”.

When the oyster uses that amazing “glue” God designed it to have to hang on to the rock, he is hanging on to the only thing that can allow him to grow and thrive. Without the glue and the rock the oyster would be tossed about and would be destroyed.

Oh, the fabulous paradox of God. As with the acorn, we must let go and we must die in order to live. But THEN we must also must HANG ON. But the vitally important question is, "What are we to hang on to?"

There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING that is worth hanging on to other than our Heavenly Rock. Just as oysters cling to the rocks in order to weather the storms that tear at them, we must also cling to the only One Who is sure and steadfast.

Be Thou to me a rock of strength,

A stronghold to save me.

For Thou art my rock and my fortress

For Thy name’s sake Thou wilt lead me and guide me.

Ps. 31:2,3

There have really been some storms for me lately. And sometimes I feel like I am doing nothing but “hanging on”. My doing nature looks at that and accuses me of not doing enough.

Maybe, just maybe God is sending enough storms into my life that all I CAN do is hang on. Maybe He is forcing me to let go of that very doing nature. And by forcing me to let go of so many things until all that is left to hang on to is HIM, He is teaching me that always and in everything He is inexhaustively enough.

So, my Rock and my Fortress, I will stick to you like glue.....like oyster glue!