JUST A BAG OF MARBLES

 

(23rd Psalm devotional)      JUST A BAG OF MARBLES        by Frances K. Van Mil

Our family was at the farmers’ market two summers ago near Gimli, where my son lives. There were many colourful booths and craft demonstrations  on this busy Saturday morning. There were fresh farm vegetables, artists selling hand-painted cards and jewellery, knitted shawls, candles, pottery, baking and more.  My son bought us doughnuts hot off the griddle, and later a breakfast sandwich.  There were cute farm animals including a fearless baby pig who was let loose into the crowds.  There was a lovely garden and the smiling owner with his truck.

I had my walker with me, and steered it into a booth, my two granddaughters calling, “Grandma!” when I forgot to stop to sanitize my hands. “Come in, Grandma”, said the smiling lady at the door.  No one else in the family was interested in this particular booth but me, as I love looking at old-fashioned things and wanted to buy something retro for my son, who collects such things.

I loved everything in the booth and could have spent all day there or bought many things but just looked, since it was so crowded and my walker was in the way.

I knew it was a reliable booth, because almost everything in it was something I had lived with in my childhood.  Had I not had family with me to think of, the music, records, books  and cooking utensils from my childhood –real, not fake - could have enthralled me for hours…

BUT

It was the bag of marbles which captivated me: green and brown stripey-not especially fine ones nor with brilliant colours; but EXACTLY like the ones I had had AND LOST as a child.

The Lord is really so good, and knows exactly how to heal the hurt places in our lives.  Imagine, after all these years – let me see, I would have been about eleven at the time, in the senior class, grade seven- imagine finding a bag of marbles like the ones I had cherished for so long as a child and lost in twenty minutes in a game of marbles!

There were three biggies, three brown, two ginger-ale green with bubbles, one painted tropical bird, two smaller mint green, plain; two more with blue or red mixed in.

As a child I would stare into those 3-D colours often.  I only collected them for the colours in them as I was artistic.  How often I would stare into their mysterious layers of colour and “ginger ale bubbles” or bright tropical hues and be in ecstasy.

But one day there was a game of marbles held for the whole school at lunch time in the upstairs hall which had a staircase at each end.  Eager children set up the game, and I, having no idea how to play, got talked into participating.

You guessed it!  I lost those cherished marbles faster than a gambler at a “one-eyed bandit”  machine or gaming table.

 

After all these years-I mean I grew up obviously and thought I had put it behind me-but there were tears in my eyes when I saw the bag of marbles.  It wasn’t a matter of needing to buy the marbles - after all, I am now an adult – but just seeing them again brought a healing of a secret place in my heart which I did not even know was hurting.

Just this morning, Jesus showed me that He had healed a tiny missing piece in me at age 78(!)

That is how much He loves and knows each one of us.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was being formed in secret and intricately and curiously wrought as if embroidered with various colours in the depths of the earth, a region of darkness and mystery.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days of my life were written before they ever took shape, when as yet there was none of them.

 Psalm 139: 15, 16 (Amplified).

And He wants to bring healing to each one of us.

 

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