God’s M & M’s

Until I was thirteen years old, I bit my nails.
Nothing anyone said or did would get me to stop.
Promises of a manicure…
Hoping to tap the top of my desk and actually make a noise…

Nothing worked…until my thirteenth birthday.
I can still remember my mother handing me the small box.
I opened it to find a beautiful ring.
Since my birthday is in July, it was my birthstone…a ruby.

This was not an ordinary ring.
It was shaped like a flower with the ruby in the center.
I felt so grown up.
I put the ring on my finger…a perfect fit.

Let me see your ring, my aunt said.
The dilemma.
How do I show such a beautiful ring with chewed finger nails?

I curled my fingers down, rather than extend them the way most women would.
I showed her my ring with my hand in that awkward position.
I remember she gave my mother a knowing look…as if this was part of the plan.

It was the motivation I needed.
Chewed nails and a beautiful birthstone ring did not match.
Later that night, I made my decision.
I WAS NOT GOING TO CHEW MY NAILS!

That’s all it took.
All the cajoling and pleading that went on for years…and the habit stopped in an instant.
All because of a ring.
All because I was thirteen…much too old for that kind of thing!

I remember when I turned eight years old.
I got glasses and braces the same year.
It’s good to get your braces out of the way now, my mother said.
She had no idea.
It was not good.

When did we begin to view ourselves in terms of our parts?
Nails, glasses, braces, freckles, hips, stomach, hair…

When did we begin to classify ourselves with a permanent marker?
Too tall, too short, too fat, too thin, too young, too old…

When I graduated from eighth grade, I was one of the tallest girls.
We all lined up to walk two by two.
There were three of us left.

Three girls who were taller that the last pair of girls in line.
So, they put us together.
There are pictures to prove it!
Two by two…followed by one set of three.

It’s so nice to be tall, my mother would say.
She was right, but I wouldn’t understand that until much later.

We are not the sum of our parts.
Somewhere along the line, our peripheral vision kicks in and we see ourselves differently.
We see ourselves through other people’s eyes.

We keep our yardstick handy.
We are so busy calculating, looking around, and comparing.
We lose a bit of ourselves in the process.

I have a chicken feeder in my kitchen.
It is NOT filled with chicken feed.
The chicken feeder sits on my kitchen island.
It is filled with M & M’s.

The clear glass Ball jar is inverted into the metal base of the feeder.
The little holes the chickens use when they are eating are just the right size for fingers.
Friends of my children love to sit and talk in the kitchen.
As they sit, they help themselves to the M & M’s.

The chicken feeder is a conversation piece…but it is so much more.
The M & M’s are significant.
They are all different colors on the outside.
Yet, they are all the same on the inside.

Just like us.

Most M & M’s are round…but some are misshapen.
Some have lettering printed carefully on the candy coating.
Some have no lettering at all.

What if I selected only red M & M’s to be in my chicken feeder?
How boring and uninteresting that would be!

We are God’s M & M’s.
Uniquely different on the outside…but the same on the inside.
Inside, we are made in His image.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Genesis 1:26,27)

We forget that!
We tend to pick out our favorite colors.
We don’t appreciate the variety He created.

We need God’s help to see ourselves the way He sees us.
We need God’s help to see others the way He sees them.

Put the permanent marker down!
Stop dissecting yourself!
We see ourselves as if we are looking through a playhouse mirror.
It is NOT a true picture!

What God sees is the real picture!

He has made everything beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

No distortions.
No dissections.

God’s M & M’s.
Miraculously Manufactured…by His Hand.