Singularity

In the last post, it seems  I overlooked the fact that precious stones and metals are also valued because of their rarity.

You know how kids always fight over the thing there is only one of?  If you have two of the same things, nobody cares about that, so don't even bother buying them each the same toy.  It doesn't work.  One thing that used to drive my parents crazy was when we'd cry, "It's not fair!"  That also infuriates my husband. "Life is not fair!" he says. He's probably right. He's smarter than me.

Although, recently a good friend of mine commented that she thought I was smart.  And then she said it again several days later.  (Perhaps she confused "muddled thinking" with "deep thinking.") Well in any case it was plenty for me to get a little puffed up.  But then I started reading a couple of books: The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis, and Jesus Among Other Gods by Ravi Zacharias.  The illusion was punctured.

These two books, along with another one I'm reading with my kids: God's Names by Sally Michael, have been helpful in getting the magnifying glass off me and my sin and onto God, where it belongs.  There is SO much more to God than I can begin to hope to imagine.  I am extremely thankful for teachers who help to stretch my brain so I don't just stay stuck with the little things I see.

In God's Names, the author states, "(God) always does what is best for His people. (bolded Italics mine)  I don't know why this hit me like a ton of bricks.  It should have been obvious.  A good thing about children's books is that sometimes I understand them.  Somewhere in the back of my mind, I guess I must have thought that God sometimes does what is maybe best for some people.  Hm.  No wonder I have trouble trusting Him.

Good teaching is rare, because it has to be true, and it has to be understandable, and it has to be useful. It has to line up with Scripture. It is of great value, and yet it may not cost (me) a dime.  I may have to search for it, though.  I may have to spend some time listening, thinking.  I may have to feel a little pain in my ego.  Sometimes, though, it's just like a waterfall of blessing, pressed down, flowing over. Free.

My husband, Ron, was telling me that, as a kid, he used to find lots of fool's gold near the canal by where he lived--big rocks of it.  That would have been fun to find, I think.  To this day I don't think I'd know the difference.  I don't know a real gem from a fake, nor would I know real gold from fool's gold.  I just don't care that much about jewelry. (But I do find other ways to spend my husband's money, lest I look too innocent.)   

The truth is that God is the rarest thing of all. But He's not a thing, He's a Person. There is only one God. And yet, He is available to everyone, everywhere, all the time.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.--Matt. 13:45-46