a story for my brother....
Once upon a time there was a boy.
And He was everything you'd want a little boy to be - small, chubby-cheeked, big smile, curious, kind, and equipped with two little hands that held tight to the treasures he found. From the time he was very small, he had always wanted one very special treasure. He knew he would hold very tight to it, if he ever found it, and he would treat his treasure the best he possibly could. Now, along with this little boy, there was a great creator. The Creator knew the boy better than anyone in the world. The Creator loved his boy. He knew the boy before anyone else, and He smiled as he imagined all the things he and his boy would do together. Before he had even formed the boy, The Creator knew he would die for him. The Creator would move heaven and earth for his precious boy.
And, as the Creator formed his boy, he decided on how he would be. His boy would be strong like Sampson, and passionate like David. His boy would be kind like His Son, and would love to invite others into his life freely. His boy would be unassuming and jovial. The Creator would bless everything his boy put his hands to like Joseph, and he would trust his boy with much responsibility. Finally, The Creator decided the desires he would give his boy. The boy would grow up desiring to serve others, to sacrifice his time and energy for the betterment of those around him, stranger or friend. The boy would desire to share whatever he had. The boy would desire to lead other boys in the noble act of protection for the vulnerable.
The Creator also placed a desire that the boy would have from the very moment he could desire anything. He wouldn't grow into it, or realize it over time. No, the boy would know this from the very beginning, and talk to The Creator about it for years and years until it was time. The Creator gave his boy a desire to share his service, his life, his dreams, his tears, his joys, his family, his time, everything with something far more precious than any other treasure. The Creator's girl. The boy would have to grow, and learn, and suffer for his treasure. The Creator would give him everything he needed, as it was needed. All the boy needed to do was trust the Creator's plan. To trust that the plan involved more than himself.
The Creator made a promise to remember his boy, when he gave the boy's parent's his name. His boy would be special and very loved because The Creator decided he was special and very loved. There was a special plan for his boy, and the Creator couldn't wait to see it all happen. He watched as his boy grew up. The boy was given little treasures as he went, to prepare him for the special treasure. Could he treat all his treasures well? The Creator gave him a mother and a father, and one older sister. They were his first treasures. The mother raised the boy to love the truth, and showed him how to reach out to those in need of a friend. The father taught the boy how to be more than a boy, but a man. Not just any man, but a man who listens before he speaks, one who is respectful and patient, a man of humility and service. The older sister was sometimes very hard on the boy, and he often struggled with treasuring her. But, he loved her. He cared what she thought, and he listened carefully to the things she said. She taught him how to have fun, how to be creative, how to look back and remember the good. And, because she was older and liked being in control, the boy learned he didn't mind others taking the lead. He found contentment in being "second in command", and found freedom in not having to have all the answers. She could do that, He would focus on making friends with the world and telling them all about his Creator. The mother and the father raised the boy in the way he should go. They gave him knowledge of the world, and taught him how to read the words of the Creator. The boy loved his family, his first treasures, and took care of them as best as he knew how. But, he still longed for his greater treasure. He laid out all the plans, told people where he would live, arranged the bunk beds for him and his future roommate, and knew they too would someday choose paint colors together (though he didn't understand why, he just knew they would.) He told his family of his plans, and he told The Creator. But, the Creator told him it wasn't time and he wouldn't show his boy the special treasure yet.
Before long, the boy wasn't really a boy anymore. He was taller, and had grown from cute to handsome. He had muscles, and loved to climb trees, and he no longer played with dinosaur toys. The Creator's boy had grown. At this point, the boy had been given new treasures to add. Another boy The Creator truly loved, to teach him how to be bold and solid, to be his longest friend, and a girl who was precious to all she would meet, The Creator intended she teach his boy to trust, to sit with, to be with whoever may need it, to be a lifelong friend to his boy. At first, the boy thought the girl may be his treasure, the one he'd been looking for, but The Creator promptly told him no.
While the boy loved his new treasures, they weren't the ones he was looking for, and he was growing impatient with the Creator's plan. So, he went out on his own and began to look for his treasure. Little did the boy know that there was also a destroyer. An evil creature who wanted nothing but the boy's death and destruction. He wanted the boy to give up on his search, to lose sight of all the things the Creator put in him. The Destroyer brought forth several of The Creator’s precious daughters, who were also looking for treasure where they shouldn't, and offered them to the boy as if he, the Destroyer, was the Creator. Three girls The Destroyer offered, and though the boy would search and see if these girls were his treasure, they never fit. Each of them brought pain and consequences into the boy's life. All because he was messing with someone else's treasure. He was ignoring his Creator's words, and hoping for the best. With each girl, the boy learned how better to lie, and sneak, and hide. He learned how to keep who he was a secret. He learned that The Creator's design was flawed. He learned that passion was wrong, that he was weak and worthless, that everything he touched got ruined, and that he was alone and forgotten. The Destroyer had successfully damage the boy's value for what the Creator had done.
One terrible night, the boy was ready to allow The Destroyer to do whatever he wanted. The boy was tired, and desperate, and looking for relief. He thought that if he listened to The Destroyer, it would all be over. All his pain would cease. But the Creator shouted ENOUGH.
In one motion, the destroyer was demolished. Who was he to stand in opposition to the Creator of the skies, the waters, the people of the earth? Who was he to attempt to stand against The Creator of the Universe? To threaten his boy? Who was he to try and ruin this precious creation?
The Creator swept into the boys room and held him close that night. The boy had allowed for so many things to attack him. He had given the destroyer more power than he thought, and he couldn't get it back. But, the Creator simply held him and wept with his boy. The boy shook with regret, he didn't mean for any of this to happen. Would the Creator forgive him? Of course. Yes, of course the beloved boy was forgiven! The Creator wouldn’t have it any other way!
Yes, the boy would have to work through the pains of what the destroyer had done, but the Creator reassured him he would never have to do it alone. All of this in search of a treasure, a special treasure. Why had the Creator given him the desire for such a treasure if all it ever did was get him in trouble?
Every day the Creator remembered his boy, and they spoke together often from that day on. The boy had made a change, and was now looking to the Creator for everything he did. He was happy. The Destroyer brought other tempting treasures, and only once was the boy led astray. Despite all the consequences, the boy knew The Creator remembered him, saw him, loved him, and protected him. The boy was secure again. He grew more, learned more, and remained true to his two friendly treasures.
One day, while spending special time with the Creator, the boy looked over and noticed someone else spending special time with The Creator. With a heavenly song, she stood, arms raised high, proclaiming the goodness of the Creator. The boy smiled because he had never met someone who talked to the Creator like that. Most girls his age were far more interested in him than they were the Creator, and the boy had learned his lesson enough times to know that he wasn't interested in a girl his age. And yet, here stood before him, a very lovely girl who spoke to her Creator with such love and honor. He wondered if maybe she could be the treasure he had been looking for? But, then again, he absolutely wasn't going to do anything about that thought because...if she wasn't? He'd been through that nightmare before.
No, he would remain in the presence of The Creator, content to wait on the Treasure before him.
Unbeknownst to him, the girl had also noticed the boy. He was handsome, and charming, and he had this humor about him. She could see he clearly loved the Creator, but what did that mean for her? She was pretty sure this was the same boy she'd met years ago, and as far as she was concerned, he was a fool back then. She wasn't interested in foolishness. But, something about him suggested that he wasn't either.
In the blink of an eye, the boy and girl began to write to each other. They spoke at least once a day, and got to know each other. Like a curtain being drawn open, one day it dawned on the boy that he liked this girl, and he asked his mother if she thought this girl could be the special treasure? His mother, ever wise and focused on truth, advised the council of the Creator, and to seek friendship first. So that's just what the boy did.
He was going to do it right this time.
Then he got a note that changed everything. The girl liked him and wanted to know what he wanted to do about that. Did he like her too? His heart filled with excitement, and he ran to tell his mother. He determined to remain friends and just get to know one another, though he admittedly found her beautiful.
Soon the boy spent all of his time with the girl and her family. They went from friends to more very quickly, and though that wasn't his plan, he was excited for the potential. He talked with the Creator about it often, and genuinely began asking if she was the treasure. The boy and the girl pursued one another and grew. The boy finally felt at peace about his Treasure. It finally felt real.
But The Creator, knowing what was to come, made a plan. A plan to work everything for the good of both his boy and his girl. The Destroyer wasn’t done with his attacks yet, and he wickedly plotted and watched as things began to morph from lovely to ugly, and circumstances quickly changed. The Creator’s two precious ones were forced apart at the hand of Fear.
Devastation filled the hearts and home of The Creator’s boy. The girl was gone. The treasure had been stolen. The boy felt used, rejected, and hated, and for a long while nothing seemed to ease the despair. The passion in the boy’s heart flared and fought, bargained, and gnashed. The boy felt as if his soul was broken. The boy’s family grieved. The boy’s friends grieved. The Creator grieved. There was great loss in the land, Weeping and sorrow filled the night.
But, Joy did come in the morning. Joy came to the boy and shared her wisdom, filling his heart with Hope. All was not lost, The Destroyer had no power. Remember the Joy of your Creator!
“I’ll work for her hand, and fight for her heart. I will not move on. I’ll see her again!” So the boy made a plan. And another plan, and another, and another, and another still. There had to be a solution! The boy could fix it, he knew he could! Fear had lied, and accused, and called forth false witnesses! It was unjust, it was unfair! The boy knew it! He had to find a way to fix it. To make the solution come faster.
The Creator came to the boy, in the loving way only The Creator can. He sat with him, and listened to him, and held his boy so tight. And then, with His Infinite wisdom and his loving heart, The Creator told the boy
“No, be still and hear me. I will make a plan for you, I know it already. Yes, you will work, yes you will suffer, you will serve, and know Joy, and fight when I say. But, my boy, for now just be still. Do only what is before you, and wait on me.” It took a few moments, but the message was clear. The boy took it in, and nodded his head. He would do what his Creator had instructed. However, his boy was a human and therefor had a habit to forget. The Creator repeated this message through his own words and through those who the boy loved, and whenever the boy strayed from the task at hand The Creator swept in and reminded again.
“Be still and hear me, my boy. You are remembered. Do not move as if I have forgotten. I know the plan. I have the way. Be still and know me.”
So, The boy went out and worked the land. Remembering who he was created to be, seeing pieces of The Creator’s plan as he plowed. Planting the seeds, watering the crops, building the shelters from the storms. The boy once again found himself waiting for his treasure to be revealed to him. But, faithfully trusting, he waited on The Creator’s plan. He was still. He listened. He was not forgotten. He worked not to gain the treasure of earth, but to serve The Creator in Heaven. His goals were changed, and his mind was made clear. He was set in his mission.
The boy would one day see his girl again, and he worked with The Creator on a plan for that day. He knew in his heart the things that must change, and he worked to hammer out the dents and damage of The Destroyer.
Now, all he had left to do was act in the knowledge of The Creator’s Intention. Beautifully and Divinely created, Chosen, Beloved, and Cherished.
His story is not even halfway through, and his spirit will not be broken. The Destroyer has more in store, and no, he has not relented. But, despite all the efforts of the evil around him, The Boy's heart was made freshly anew. Every morning he'd sit and he'd talk with his Creator. He knew he was never forgotten.
So for now,
The boy put his hand to the plow set before him. He would see his Treasure soon.