Life is like soy sauce

Our family has been going through some stressful times the last month. It has been overwhelming with the abnormal-literally. I haven't known quite what to make of it,nor, how to put my normal positive spin on it, so I have been abnormally quiet.

It all came together this morning as I was making yummy blueberry pancakes since the second day of school was cancelled for a "Storm Day." I had my last two blueberry pancakes cooking and had put the finishing touches on my own plate of hot blueberry pancakes when I grabbed something out of the cabinet and realized it was covered with black liquid. Then in that same hundredth of a second that won Michael Phlelps a gold medal, I realized the entire cabinet was covered in black liquid that came from an overturned bottle of soy sauce.

It had covered my box of Stevia. That stuff cost too much to be infused with the taste of soy sauce. I immediately set to work cleaning. It dripped on the coffee pot, it dripped on the counter, it dripped on the floor, and then down the front of my gown. I am not sure how many paper towels I used to clean this mess, but I sure was glad I wasn't out. I cleaned and cleaned as my pancakes sat there getting cold.

It was during this massive clean up, I realized, this is how my life has been lately. I have been up to my knees in soy sauce! But not just me, everyone in the family is standing on soy sauce. Our friends have even been standing in soy sauce. So what to do, what to do?

While I was cleaning out my cabinets, I was able to save what was inside most of the time, but the boxes had to go. Very few things had to be completely tossed out. My cabinet is now clean and is less cluttered-at least that one shelf. Maybe, just maybe, that is what God needs us to let him do.

So I will let God clean this mess up! I will let him go through, and box by box, either wipe off the bottom or throw the box away. He will have the shelves in our souls cleansed and straightened, clear of even the lingering smell of soy sauce. He can find all the drips and stains of our hurts and fears and wash them away completely. He will take the abnormal and make it normal again, giving us ways to cope and overcome. He will put the top on tight so now new spills of soy sauce don't occur and he will always have plenty of paper towels.

You better check the bottoms of your shoes, you might just be standing in soy sauce!

Dan 3:24-27

Suddenly Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement.

He asked his officials,

"Didn't we tie up three men and throw them into the blazing furnace?"

They answered, "Yes, we did, Your Majesty."
"Then why do I see four men walking around in the fire?" he asked.

"They are not tied up, and they show no sign of being hurt

-and the fourth one looks like an angel."
So Nebuchadnezzar went up to the door

of the blazing furnace and called out,

"Shadrach! Meshach! Abednego!

Servants of the Supreme God! Come out!"

And they came out at once.

All the princes, governors, lieutenant governors,

and other officials of the king gathered to look at the three men,

who had not been harmed by the fire.

Their hair was not singed, their clothes were not burned,

and there was no smell of smoke on them.