The Juice of Life

"you should not delay to offer...

your juices"

Exodus 22:29 

See this?

It's a juicer.  Or more appropriately, a citrus reamer.  It used to belong to my grandmother.  I remember that, because years ago when my mother became aware that I needed one, she said, "Here, you can have this one.  But it used to belong to my mother, so don't break it."

Believe me, every time I get it out of the cupboard, I grip it tightly.

Isn't it beautiful? 

I had washed it the night before, so it was just sitting on the counter waiting to be put away, and I just thought it was so lovely in the morning sunlight.  All those sides and angles  catching and refracting the light. 

But then I remember the job of this tool.  To ream. The fruit is pressed down hard on the tip, and then it is forcefully ground, in a twisting motion.  Seeds, pulp and juice are all dislodged.  Everything the fruit has to offer is extracted.  It's rather a violent act, although I guess that's somewhat appropriate in a room where things are beaten and whipped. 

A reamer accomplishes a great deal for its size.  And it does so forcefully.  And yet, in its own way, it's a work of art. 

There is beauty in the work that God is doing in us.  We feel like we're being scraped and scoured and rubbed raw.  We think we have nothing more in us to give.  And yet He's not done. 

The things that "ream" us are beautiful and intricately designed to do the job.   People, events, long-running circumstances, all are used by Him to bring out everything in us ~ the good and the bad.  The good to be a blessing to ourselves and to others, the bad to be discarded, leaving us just a little bit more like Him. 

It's often painful, but like so many difficulties in life, it's all in the perspective.  And maybe the only way to see the beauty is to see it in His light.

~ "You shall be like a tree

planted by the rivers of water,

that brings forth its fruit in its season" ~

Psalm 1:3

~