I pulled away from my computer and turned to hubby. “Listen to this story,” I said.
A baby camel looked up to his mother, “Mommy, why do we have these long eyelashes, these big hooves, and a hump on our back?”
She turned to him. "God made us that way for a very special reason," she explained. "Our large feet are to keep us from sinking into the sand."
"Why the big eyelashes?" he asked.
"It's to protect our eyes from the sand."
"Why the big humps?"
"That is to store fat and have enough energy to go long distances in the hot desert!"
"I see!" The baby camel stretched his neck and looked up at his mother. "The large feet are to keep us from sinking into the sand, the long eyelashes are to keep the sand out of our eyes, and the humps are to store energy to travel...then what are we doing in this cage in the middle of a zoo?"
I have asked the same question. Like the camel, I had all I needed to enjoy life. I had desires, dreams, and prepared my wings to fly high to success. But instead, I found myself in a cage of grief and heartache. Pitiful really, and definitely not the place I thought I belonged. At the age of 30, my eyesight closed in completely. I lost my joy, my purpose, and my freedom. Bars of gloom and desperation surrounded me.
Inside that cage, I longed for days gone by. Days when I could see. Days when life still held promises for tomorrow.
If you have, like He did with me, God might be whispering this powerful truth right into your soul:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:18)
When looking forward, we see the freedom from past longings. When we choose to see outside our cage, we see His hand calling. And when we choose to use what God gave us, we can live in the richness of today.
Father, I need your reminder each moment of each day that you created me for much more than what I see within my cage. Thank you for showing me the way to the freedom you offer, fresh with your promises.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
What has you trapped these days?
Bonus article on today’s topic.
Janet
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