Tangled Necklaces

It's January and the cold has finally settled in here in Michigan. Usually around this time of year, I find myself staying inside more and enjoying the coziness and warmth of our house. In a lot of ways I like the way the cold forces me to slow down and enjoy just being home. I welcome it like an old friend, because I'm tired. Summer, birthdays and holidays have come and gone and this is a nice break to take some time to reevaluate and breathe. The introvert in me savors this. Even though the summer-flip flop loving side of me becomes completely homesick for beautiful Florida this time of year, I'm reminded that the cold SLOWS me down. Something that I had trouble doing while I lived in Florida. 

Cora received a jewelry box for Christmas from her Siti. She loves it. She loves the music and the "lady in a costume." (AKA Ballerina haha) She loves all the small trinkets that she puts inside of it. I decided that I would bring out my old jewelry box too. It was a good idea, because she delighted in it so much that she played with it for almost forty five minutes. This was a big deal to me, because normally she plays with things no longer than five minutes or so. She is two after all. Anyways, she loved all my weird little Lisa Frank accessories, armadillo anklet, beaded pig necklace, charm from Grandma R.... Although I can't explain to her why these crazy things are important to me, I enjoyed watching her take out all of the jewelry and smile. When she opened up one of the drawers there was a ball of tangled necklaces. It cracked me up, because it has taken a lot of practice and hard work for me to become organized. Something like that would drive me crazy now, but when I was 13 years old, a ball of tangled necklaces wouldn't bother me a bit. Cora handed me the necklaces, and I began to try to figure out how to get them untangled. As I was unwinding and twisting the mess of latches and beads and chains, I started to think about how this ball of tangled necklaces pictured how our life must look without Christ. All these pieces of our life-problems, hardships, sufferings, blessings, rewards, and even the mundane...stuck together. When we try to sort them out on our own, we become frustrated and confused and want to give up(as I did while untangling the necklaces haha). What I realized though, is our lives can look like tangled necklaces and we can still have peace... because we have  God who looks past the tangled mess and helps us sort through the mess. He's long suffering, patient and kind and died for us so that we can have a perfect life one day. A life that is not tangled. I'm thankful for this lesson, and I pray that one day Cora will understand what this is like one day too! <3