Shiny and New (or not so much)
When we go to Winterfest, they give us at the close an object to carry around with us to remind us of the lesson of the year. Last year was a domino to remind us that
it takes a series of steps or in this case dominos to make an impact. This year we got a keychain that is in the shape of a puzzle piece to remind us that we all fit in the overall story and that by
sharing our story we can bring people into the story of Jesus.
That Sunday we left we got these very shiny keychains that we were excited to be able to carry with us. On Monday I put mine on my keychain with my keys and was glad
to have that constant reminder. When we were leaving, I had grabbed enough for the group to make sure everyone would get one and ended up with extras as some were able to get their own from the
buckets. I noticed after about a week of carrying mine on my keys it wasn’t quite as shiny and brand new looking as it had been. As I was getting ready to grab one of the extras to change it out, I
had a random thought cross my mind. How often in life do we do that? We get something new or start something new and after a little bit it isn’t as shiny as it was or as exciting, so we replace it
with something different or the newer version. Even with our relationship with God, when we hit a rough spot or even when things are going great. Things don’t go quite as well as we want or how we
assume it will, so we give up on it or move to something else.
Now it might not have been exactly what the Winterfest group wanted us to learn from the keychain, but it is a powerful lesson and a reminder to keep working and to
stick with it through the dark and light spots. I kept my original keychain on that day so that I would have that visual reminder of that.
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