We all have something we enjoy doing, a hobby or maybe more than one hobby, that we like to do just for fun. For many years, more than I’d like to count, I’ve had a love affair with gourds. I have garbage cans and sacks full of gourds. Some are big, some are small. Those in my garage are, for the most part, like they came off the vine. They need a good scouring because they look rather dirty. Now, they aren’t dirty; they are just being gourds. They have a blotchy skin that needs a good scouring. Then when they are dried, their surface is beautiful, tan and smooth and looks like leather. That’s the hard part, getting them ready for their ultimate purpose in life. Sometimes I cut off the top, scoop out the seeds and there is a nice container. I did this with the snowman gourd and he holds Christmas candy each Yuletide. Some gourds I simply paint. The teddy bear, the bee hive, the frog, began life as a seed, were nourished by a strong vine with large leaves and then, after frost settled on them, were plucked off to dry for several months. After that, the cleaning process, paint, and ta-da (as my grandchildren say) their ultimate purpose.
One of my artist friends said that in every canvas or piece of wood or, I guess, a gourd, there is something that wants to come to life, something in there that is knocking and saying, Let me out. And under the hand of the artist, it comes out–as a thing of beauty or usefulness or at least, interest.
Aren’t people that way? Don’t we have someone inside who is saying, Let me out. And under the skilled hand of our Creator, God, we do come forth as the thing of beauty He meant us to be. So if you hear somebody inside of you knocking, it may be the person you were intended to be. Only God and you can answer who the real you is but you can trust the One who made you in the first place to release your potential and let your true beautiful self shine forth.
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