The Sphere in the Sand

  I was recently given a kinetic sand table as a gift that has done nothing short of cause me to sit in wonder at it for hours.  For those that don’t know, it’s a bowl filled with sand and a metal sphere that is controlled wirelessly through an App that makes complex designs and shapes.  It’s like a kaleidoscope with sand that you control through your phone.  I have truly geeked out over it and find it completely fascinating, calming and stunning.

  

  Today, I was walking through the room and I saw this design and that the metal ball had stopped in the center of it.  The table allows the ball to pause after completing a design and let’s you admire it, before starting off on another pattern (How kind of the AI program…I’m refusing to think of Big Brother implications…(that’s Orwell, not CBS, to the young ones…))

So, I snapped a picture and suddenly thought—wow, what a great little lesson that is for all of us.  

  As Caroline prepares to go off to Baylor this week, and Michael prepares to start up sophomore year on Monday and we all dig in to work and hobbies again after a summer of fun, excitement, and long days of hanging out, I think we all kind of feel like that sphere in the middle of a complex and beautiful design.  Like we have accomplished so much, worked so hard, been so precise and now it’s finished.  Let’s pause and admire the work.  

And yet…it’s not finished…not even close.  We’ve pushed that sand in such a beautiful way that we’ve created a center where we can’t get out without messing it up.  And, here, we start to panic.  What do we do now?  Where do we go?  How will whatever we do next compare to this design I worked so hard on? And on and on and on…

  It’s eternally awesome to realize that God designed our little kinetic sand tables to be like this.  To let us create startling designs of kindness and joy, cathartic pain and ennui, hope and excitement as we roll around the sand being guided by a wise Hand.  And, then He lets us pause for a moment to reflect on how His plan is going through your work.  To praise Him for His guiding presence.  And acknowledge that it may have been difficult and confusing to get here, but there was a plan all along.  

And the design looks good, peaceful, successful… and we can rest in that..for a bit…and then we must roll on, plow though that design and begin to create a new one—one that will stun us anew and show us the glory of His plan.  

So, I am going to try to enjoy the new design and roll into this new season with boldness and excitement.  I can’t wait to see what beautiful complex and wondrous designs Caroline, Michael and each of you will create.  We all just have to be willing to be that sphere in the sand and to be guided by the wise Hand as He draws for us a picture of joy everlasting.  

(And I acknowledge that I also probably need to spend less time watching a kinetic sand table!)