Encouragement

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Once when I was young, my aunt gave me the gift of crayons and a fresh drawing pad. Not just any crayons, but the largest metal box I had ever seen – 64 glorious colors. Cornflower blue, Periwinkle, butterscotch yellow, pink peony! Up until that time, I had only seen 8 colors in a cardboard box, and had spent many enchanting hours blending and shading to combine colors. So you can imagine my delight at all the new possibilities before me.

My room was upstairs in our Ohio farmhouse, and the summer days were long and humid. I had a special spot in my room, under my wood frame bed, where I hid all my treasured possessions, to be obtained at my desire and enjoyed over and over again.

One particularly hot August day, I ran to my room to gather my art supplies. Paper – check. Pencils – check. Crayons – check. I went downstairs to the kitchen to draw and when I opened the metal crayon box, to my horror the heat had melted the crayons together, paper and all, like one enormous conglomeration of swirled color. I was more than distraught. My hopes of creativity were dashed.

I could only see what was not good about this situation, I couldn't see anything good at all – I could not see the excitement of the newly combined colors, the science of how it happened, or how I could cut them and still use them to discover entirely different things about blending. I could not see the humor in the situation. I could only see my loss.

And so it has been all my life. In my own nature I see the world around me for what is not, rather than embracing what is: “There is no work today”, instead of “This is a day off, ordained by the Master”. “There is no money for a movie”, but there are unread books on my shelf, friends to visit, or walks to take. “I’m getting older and slower”… good, I don’t have to be in such a hurry anymore! There is so much waiting to be seen, yet to be experienced, but all too often I look through brown glasses and see a monochromatic world, missing the shades and hues and diversity everywhere.

Lord, help me catch the treasures throughout my days, the seemingly serendipitous moments that you have hidden for me to “happen” upon. May I embrace each day as a gift from you, even a "melted crayon day", and delight in opening it, with you by my side.

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