The Egg Explosion
"Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls." (Matt 11:28, 29)
I'm not sure what happened to me today, but I am sure
that somewhere I must have lost my mind. The evidence? I
actually agreed to this strange plan devised by the two
biggest schemers I know: My 10 year-old son and his 12
year-old friend. The scheme was this: I would drive the kids
around while they delivered her papers, then I would take
them all over to my house so that the two younger siblings
could destroy the basement while the two older ones blew up
eggs in my kitchen. I don't know what possessed me, but I
was quoted as saying this plan was a go . . ..
Of course I never really believed they would blow up eggs in
my kitchen, and perhaps this is what made me agree.
But that is exactly what happened when the two schemers
"cooked" an egg in my microwave! Tiny particles of
cooked egg went everywhere in the microwave -- up in the
fan, on top of the top, under the glass bottom -- literally
EVERYWHERE! And it wasn't long before it was tracked
throughout the kitchen as well!
Of course, the kids had to make an attempt at cleaning it
up, and to her credit, my son's friend did a remarkably good
job. But just how thorough can a 12 year old be, when
her partner in crime (my son!) is declaring: "I don't
know how to clean up a microwave! You do it!"
In the end, I had to disassemble the entire machine and
thoroughly clean each of its parts. It was a mess!
It was a pain! And I hope the schemers
learned their lesson well!
But the part that makes me question my sanity the most is that in the end, I actually thanked those two kids!
Why?
First of all, when it was all said and done, the microwave was a lot cleaner after the experience than it was before!
Secondly, while
all of this was going on, I was on the phone with a dear
friend, a new Christian lady who has a son just out of
prison for drug related crimes. He had been missing for five
days, and my friend felt in her heart that he had turned
back to his heroin. As we prepared to pray together, the
vision of the exploded egg overcame me. I quickly told
my friend about the mess in my kitchen, and God used this
story to speak words of courage and comfort to her heart, to
assure her that if she would hand the problem over to God,
He would clean it up for her.
Friends, sometimes, just like that unfortunate egg, life
just "blows up" in our faces. When it does, we are literally
overcome by the "mess" it makes. Often we try to clean it up
ourselves, and though we might do a pretty fair job on the
surface, we usually manage to track the "mess into other
areas of our lives in the process. To really clean up
the mess, we need God. We need Him to disassemble all of the
intricate "parts" and "pieces" of the problem and scrub out
all the dirt. And when He is finished, the end result will
be a lot cleaner than it ever was before life exploded!
Are there any eggs exploding in your lives, my friends? If
so, take a moment to thank God for His greatness. Then hand
Him the egg-splattered microwave and let Him worry about it.
You can be assured that in the end, things will be better
than they were before the problems arose!
Love in Christ,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets (
www.sermonillustrator.org/minisermons/ ), Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org ,