Children

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The Ballerina
©
by

Stephen A. Peterson

While visiting friends in Florence, a city in Northern Italy, Alesha Peterson saw a porcelain figurine in a gift shop window. Alesha collected porcelain figurines and wanted this one for her collection. She went into the shop with the expressed purpose of purchasing it.

No one was in the gift shop but Alesha and the 18-inch porcelain figurine. Like magic, the porcelain ballerina spoke up for itself: “Ms. Peterson, I want you to know that I did not always look like this. To make me into the beautiful ballerina you see here and now was a painful experience. I was once nothing more than sand and gravel trampled underfoot by any and everyone who passed through the area of Florence. The Master came one day with his bucket and shovel and just took me away from the area I had lived in all of my existence. I shouted, screamed and used inappropriate language as He was taking me away from the friends I had known. He just smiled at me and told me that He would make me beautiful and the desire of many.

Then the Master mixed me with some other things in a large metal container of some sort. I asked Him to please stop because I did not like being mixed together with foreign materials I did not know or like. He said that it was necessary to mix me with these substances and that He was not yet finished with me and had special plans for me.

Next the Master put me in a hot oven. I thought He was angry with me, my complaints and was trying to get rid of me. I began swearing and pounding on the oven door. I cried for the Master to let me out, that I was sorry for swearing and complaining so much. All the Master did was to smile at me indicating that He was not finished with me yet.

When I came out of the oven, I was a liquid and started to run but the Master took me back and put me into a mold, of some sort. He put me in this long tube and began blowing air into me. At the same time, the Master used a sharp instrument and began forming me. I screamed for Him not to hurt me. I could see Him just smile that He still had some more work to do on me.

The Master put these paints on me and put me in the hot oven once again. I plead with Him not to hurt me with more fire. But He said that He still was not finished but once finished I would be so beautiful that people would not be able to resist my beauty.

Then the Master sprayed some kind of chemical on me. I thought I would choke to death. I could see Him just smile then say that He was finally finished with me. Once He finished, I breathed a big sigh of relief.

The Master took me to a mirror. I looked and looked some more. I said that this could not be me as I am just sand and gravel. That people just walked on me and disregarded my very existence.

He told me that I was no longer sand and gravel but a beautiful porcelain ballerina. It took a seemingly long and painful process to make me into the work of art you now see me as. I was told that He chose to remove me because engineers were planning to relocate me to make way for a super highway. If He had not taken me out of the area when He did I would have been washed down the river or dumped in a landfill somewhere. I would have been a useless nothing!

I then said what no one would have ever heard me say in the past: I said: ‘Master please forgive me for not trusting in Your goodness. When You took me away, I thought you hated me, were trying to hurt me and get rid of me because I said nasty things about You and even hated You for what you did. Master, I said, Can you forgive me being so evil, mean and short sighted, and selfish. The Master just smiled, stated His forgiveness of my evil ways and went on forming other entities in His workshop amidst protests from the other items He was forming.”

Like the sand and gravel, now porcelain ballerina, we too generally fight the Master as well. We, likewise, tend to believe that difficult, painful periods mean that the Master dislikes us, has forgotten us, or has lost control of the situation. Many of us curse and swear at the Master, fall apart, go into depression, kill themselves or hurt others before the Master has completed His work. For them, the loss of their wealth, a serious personal illness, loss of prestige or the death of a loved one who has suffered while living is often more than they can actually tolerate from the Master. They want the Master to do, as they want the Master to do. On the other hand, some learn that His work and experience, His divinity, His unconditional love, goodness and kindness takes often require difficult even painful periods. These periods are always in preparation for something better—much better than they can even begin to imagine and appreciate!

Which path do you attempt to take? Do you allow the Master to be in control of your life? Or are you in control? Humm!

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