Christian OR "Crust-ian"

My calendar for the past several days has been chock full of things that just had to be done. Things out of my usual ordinary pattern. An unexpected funeral of a beloved aunt. Therapy for my neck. Putting up vegetables from the garden. Plus, of course, all the regular things I must do every day.

Ever so often these past few days I have thought to myself...."I would sure like to be sitting at my computer writing something!" But I actually didn't have anything coming to my mind to write. Oh, a few things flittered across my brain but they didn't amount to much. Hence the absenteeism of a blog post so far this week.

Today as I walked in my driveway in the cool of the early morning, I kept telling the Lord that I would like to see something that would trigger a thought or a story that I could share with you today. As I walked my last few yards headed to the house I suddenly spied something! I looked closer. It was two cicada....or "locusts" as we call them here in Mississippi. They were up under the top of the steps leading to my front porch. Normally I would never have looked up under there but I feel sure God wanted me to see this today. As I stooped down to get a closer view I saw that one of the locusts was alive and well....the other was....well..... just a shell. I'm not sure if the live locust had just molted out of his shell or if he had only been attracted to what looked like another of his own species. Whatever the reason or rhyme, there they were sitting side by side. One full of life. One only a shell.

My mind almost immediately recalled some of the words to a song titled "The Old Rugged Cross Made the Difference" written by Bill and Gloria Gaither back in 1970. They wrote: "Without hope walked the SHELL of a man; Then a hand with a nail-print stretched downward, Just one touch, then a new life began."

Looking at the locust I thought, "What a picture of God's grace!" Indeed without God that's all we are....a shell of what we should be and facing the wrath of God. But when that nail-scarred hand of Jesus reaches down and touches us, a new life begins......and it never ends! Our eternal life starts the minute we accept His grace to cover our sins! What a blessed assurance!

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3: 36 KJV

Don't be a Christian in name only and just a shell of what you could be. God wants to truly change us into creatures of not only eternal life but of daily abundant life in Him!

Thankful to be a product of God's grace.......

Marilyn