I'm often just plain overwhelmed by my job as a volunteer area coordinator for Operation Christmas Child. I lead a team of volunteers whose mission is to promote the Operation Christmas Child project in the three counties of northwestern PA. The thing about this job is that no matter how much you do there's always more to do. No amount of work, no amount of contacts is ever enough when so many children are waiting to hear that Jesus loves them.
So as I walked and prayed this morning I was reciting to God the list of all the calls that I need to make and all the tasks still undone. And that's when I started thinking about ironing socks.
When I was four years old I got this cute little ironing board and a toy iron. It was 1956 and the safety regulations weren't so stringent so you could plug the toy iron into the wall outlet and it even heated up just a tiny bit. I would set that ironing board up next to my mother's as she ironed so that I could help her. She gave me a very special job--she let me iron the socks. It took me maybe a year before I realized that she never ironed the socks when I wasn't helping; it was a job reserved for me.
As I remembered that this morning I thought about the character of our awesome God. Our omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and eternal God does not need me to complete His work. He's not biting His nails and waiting for me to make these phone calls. He already has it all accomplished, but because He loves me, He invites me to partner with Him. This job that seems so heavy to me at times is really just like ironing socks.
God, you know each of these billions of children who wait to know Your love. You know the number of hairs on each of their heads. You know each one of their thoughts. And You love each of them fully and completely.
You love me, too, God, and You promise to never leave me or forsake me. You promise, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
But because I see in my mind the faces of all those waiting children, today I'm going to get busy and iron the socks.
Kathy - this is perfect. We DO feel overwhelmed by all we could be doing w/OCC. This is a great analogy. I love to iron; it soothes me... I'm noticing how OCC tasks soothe and invigorate me at the same time. Thanks for this post!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! So true and a great perspective!! Btw, I had a little iron, too and my mom "let" me iron my dad's hankerchiefs! Haha!!
ReplyDeleteAlso, you won the copy of the Lead the Way God Made You book from my site, so if you will email me your address I will get it in the mail to you!
blgraves4@yahoo.com
Blessings!!