My soul has been slowly ironed out this summer. Do you ever feel like your very soul is crumpled like last night's pajamas? I do. I find that feeling comes mostly after intense periods of busy-ness or service or when God is dealing with some deep rooted heart issues in me that leaves me breathless and tired. This wrinkledness seems to be a mixture of all three, this summer at least. The crumpled feeling isn't a lack of peace. Peace comes from the uncompromising truth of Christ Jesus and is like the constant current of deep waters. What I am talking about is what I think the ocean feels, if indeed the ocean could feel, when there is a great storm on the surface. The deep is constant; the surface is in turmoil.
Everyday wrinkles are shook out on my front porch during Jesus time or cuddling with my hubby or weeding my garden or climbing trees with the kids. The dress-shirt-right-out-of-the-packaging wrinkles require more - I would say work but it is not my work that irons out my wrinkles. God is definitely the one doing all the work I just have to be willing to lay down on His ironing board.
There are three places on the planet I have found so far where God irons my soul out nice and flat then gently folds it into a perfect square and hands it back to me. (I always imagine His hands to look like my Dad's - strong and able.) I don't think these places hold magical power or have some sort of crazy new age spiritual aura. I do think, however, that I, for whatever reason, can get out of God's way in these places and allow Him to work. They are:
The ocean's edge
The mountains
Ballet class
Both the ocean's edge and the mountains display God's majesty and power and greatness to such an extent that I can not help but be put in my place so to say. It is not hard to withdraw my right to myself in the presence of His Glory and thereby placing myself on His ironing board where all things are righted, ironed flat and pressed clean.
Ballet class is complicated, even to me. But looking at this picture above, the ballet barres lined up, speaks to my soul in ways other things don't. Just as God has placed eternity in my heart, He has also placed dance there too. And this is what I am learning, we are God's glory. His glory in me has found expression in dance.
The righting that God does during a ballet class is different, more personal, more deep, more...just more. It is an ironing that gives form and definition to what the end will be. He is speaking to me in a language that can not be spoken and that can not die. Not just ironing me flat but putting in the creases where they belong, making me more of an expression of His glory. And that amazes me each and every time...the God of the Universe, Creator of All, Savior of Mankind desires to express His glory in me. In each of us.
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