5 items of spiritual significance

the meme: list and write about five items (or animals/plants/etc) that have spiritual significance for you, and talk about it!

1. the FOUR-LEAF CLOVER - God brought special meaning to them by using them to reveal to me the meaning of the scripture that says "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" (1 Corinthians 6:17)... you know how they use a three-leaf clover to (imperfectly, yes) illustrate how the Trinity is separate and distinct, and yet only One essence? well, while reading (or hearing it being read? i forget) God brought it to life by bringing a fourth leaf into the three-leaf clover, and saying, (basically):"that's how joined you are to Me... one with Me... forever adopted and co-heir and reigning with Me... one spirit with Me..." WHAMMO. bowl me over, why doncha, Lord?! lol

2. a NEST WITH THREE EGGS - God personally ministered this to me, to my deepest being, that i cannot fully explain (but i can, somewhat, or i wouldn't mention it! lol)... it speaks of God's Sovereign care and plan and destiny and purpose for my life, in this way:

• the nest is the care and protection provided for the eggs, purposed to that before the eggs even existed (God's predestination and care), and holds them and keeps them through their time (my life, history, future).
• the first egg represents the fallen, dark side of me: my unregenerate man, basically, and all the enemy would have me to be... God's taken care of that egg, even in it's darkness, kept it safe and never would think to discard it - His redemption,.. (speaks much of my past, as well as the struggle with the flesh)...
• the second egg represents the me that i am becoming, my salvation, my sanctification... my new-creation life, here on earth, the part of me that seeks to follow Him.... He is *keeping* me in it, in Him - my day-to-day life and walk.
• the third egg represents my predestination, set-apartness, that He planned before the foundation of the world. He has held me in His heart and plans all that time, safe (in the nest), and speaks volumes of the eternal plans and purposes - the destiny - that He has for me, beyond this life. (what i can't explain to y'all is, of course, the depth to which it personally ministers to me.)

3. DREADS/WOOL - ahhh... how to explain?! wool and other natural hair fibre (including human hair, ergo the dreads), because it has scales, will 'lock up' with the hairs beside it and tighten, forming a solid fibre. this is why wool sweaters can shrink to half the size, pill when exposed to friction, and hair will tangle up and become dreads. so the meaning behind dreads for me, and my love of working with wool in felting/fulling (deliberately locking up/shrinking the wool), are based in the same concept: UNITY and WHOLENESS. anybody who knows me well knows that i pull out my hair... well, it is often a psychological symptom that, to me anyways, can indicate deep-seated self-rejection and loathing. well, God wants me to not reject myself, but to love myself as He loves me, recieves me, and never rejects me, and to come to wholeness in Him. He wants to join me up into one whole person, just like the multiple fibres of wool, or human hair, join to become a new - and whole - integrated whole. *kewl*

4. the ADOPTION NECKLACE - this is a neclace i made of flawed, damaged, or misshapen beads, one-offs, oddball beads, and leftovers (not enough to do anything with). as i was beading the necklaces for the adoption project, i would put these kinds of beads in a pile, and one day i gathered them together (i was bored) and laid them out on my beading board in a chromatic order... fiddled with them a bit to balance it, and came out with something beautiful. and it became a personal word - and lesson - for me... that in God, there are no cast-offs, rejects, or unloved beads (people)... and also, so it is withing us each individually - there are aspects of ourselves sometimes we don't like, but they are there for a reason, and if we embrace and minister love to these areas, God can make something beautiful...


even if one day i no longer have this necklace, i will forever remember the revelation, promise, and lesson it brought. some examples of the kinds of items in the necklace: misshapen pearls (points, extra holes or 'bubble-like' flaws); cracked or misshapen glass beads; beads where the hole is off-center, or the color or finish didn't 'take'; beads that would have gone in the garbage as 'useless'. ...sounds very much like the body of Christ, does it not? :)

5. the TALE OF DESPEREAUX - the story, whether book or movie format. this mouse lives in a world of fear, but for some strange reason, he doesn't have any! he refuses evil, fear-driven rules in favor of freedom, and eventually brings other mice to that same freedom. God's promise to me?: to free me from ungodly rules and fear, and bring me to freedom from fear. a personal Word from God to me! ...'nuff said! (to find out more on how God has ministered to me with this story, look for my other posts on it. maybe google 'despereaux' in 'this site only' or somethin'? sorry i have no tags/labels to search...)