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The Salt Doll

by Kevin Pauley  
10/24/2006 / Devotionals

I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent meI told them what you are like, and I will tell them even more. Then the love that you have for me will become part of them, and I will be one with them. - John 17:21, 26

A little salt doll decided she wanted to see the wonders of the world and set out on a journey. At last, she came to the edge of the ocean. What are you? she cried.

Touch me and you will find out, answered the sea.

Timidly, she dipped in her toe and experienced a wonderful feeling. But when she withdrew her foot, her toe had disappeared. What have you done to me? she exclaimed.

The sea responded, You have to give something of yourself in order to be able to understand.

The salt doll decided that if she truly wanted to understand the sea, she would have to give more of herself. So she stuck in her whole foot, and everything up to her ankle disappeared. But amazingly she didnt mind. In fact, the experience merely encouraged her to continue on. She stepped further and further into the sea, losing more and more of herself, and with each step she understood the sea more fully, more deeply. As the last piece of her dissolved into that briny water, the salt doll was able to think; Now I know what the sea is. It is I.

Many of us seek unity with the transcendent. Witness the prevalence of religious material that can be found: Eastern, Wicca, New Age, Muslim, Judaic, and Buddhist. All these try to teach us various methods to achieve that golden fleece - the ecstasy of oneness with God. Some even seek that sense of intimacy and transcendence in sex, drugs or alcohol.

But Jesus taught us two thousand years ago that we could not be His disciples without a cost. You must spend something of yourself in order to truly understand what it means to see the world through His eyes. You must partake of His nature. It must consume you until your self disappears until your ego wastes away in the flames of His presence. It starts with simple submission to the lordship, the sovereignty of Christ in your life. It is manifested by many works of grace in your life: responsible stewardship of His ecosystem, care for the weak and elderly, freeing those unjustly imprisoned, feeding the hungry, parenting the fatherlessAll of these are signs that an internal flame has been ignited by the Holy Spirit. Then and only then can you take your last breath and whisper, Ah! Now I know what Christ isfor I see Him as He is and we are truly one.

written by Pastor Kevin Pauley - permission to reprint.
Kevin Pauley is a minister and a freelance writer living in Illinois with his wife and five children.
www.pastorpauley.com

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