Onion

I'm convinced my faith is like an onion.




Recently in bible study I shared a story about a time when my faith was weak. I talked about my struggle with my special needs children and the questions I had for God.

Then, almost as soon as the words of question were out of my mouth, during the video portion of our study, a mom shared her story of her daughter who was diagnosed with CP. She eventually ended up with a diagnosis of a terminal disease, but her words told a story of her immediate trust in God, and her willingness to raise that special child without question.

I left wishing that her story had been my own. I wished I didn't have a testimony filled with questions and answers. I know what I believe, but I question the way it plays out in real life. How does faith and my perfect God fit in to my messy, sometimes sinful life? How did she immediately trust God?

As I chopped an onion for dinner that night, I looked at the way it holds together if I leave the root end intact and thought of how much easier I'm able to work with it. I did it right with one onion and forgot with the other. One fell apart. I threw the dry skins away, and again thought of my day.

That's when it hit me. I'm an onion.

There are top layers of me that are useless to God. They were formed in the world and filled with my own ideas. They slough off easily and hold no value. They were the places in my life where I wished desperately for life to be the way I saw it. So many things I wish weren't in me live there.

But deeply rooted, is an unshakeable faith in God and His plan for my life. There lives layer after layer of what He sees in me, the places He created in me. Layers that he delights in and can use for whatever it is He is making. I may not know if I'm a part of a big pot of soup, or the main ingredient like an onion suffle. Either way, it only works if I stick to the right end.




There may be many days when I wish my story was like another's. Maybe I would like to be chocolate; definitely something carbolicious. I'm simply not those things. I only have the story that God gave me, and I'm learning to be thankful for it. The story of an onion.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. Colossians 2:6-7 (niv)