He makes all things beautiful

A man asked God for a flower and a butterfly because he wanted to be surrounded by beautiful things. Imagine his disappointment when God gave him a cactus and a caterpillar. He was sad. He didn't understand how or why God had misunderstood his request. “Oh well," he thought to himself, “God has too many people to care for so I won’t question Him”. So he accepted the items, put the cactus in a pot and placed the caterpillar where it could feed and forgot about them. After some time, the man went to check up on the cactus and caterpillar. He was stunned to find that from the ugly, thorny cactus, a beautiful flower had emerged, and the unsightly, disgusting caterpillar had transformed into the most beautiful butterfly.

I do not remember where I read this story but it spoke a lot to me then and I kept it. I have had to revisit it and what follows is a little 'finding' about God or rather a reminder that in this life, there are very few short-cuts that lead anywhere great.


Have you ever had a "Lord, I think You misunderstood me. I asked for a beautiful flower, but You have given me a cactus" moment?  I have. I am beginning to appreciate something about God: He rarely hands over things in its mature state. You ask for a child, He places a foetus in a woman's womb. You ask for food, He gives you seed. You ask for a home, He gives you a spouse. You ask for wealth, He gives you a skill or more. Even our Salvation needs to be worked out to its maturity...if you are faithful to the end.

Naturally we like short-cuts and quickies. We are in the era of microwaves where everything is ready in 2 minutes. It is easier to want finished goods and many times our inability to see the flower in a cactus or the butterfly in the caterpillar causes us to 'lose' what we have asked for. We lose when we fail to achieve or reach our goals. The man in the above story was lucky. He was able to go back where he kept his items and ultimately discover that his needs had been met.  Some are not always so lucky however thank goodness God knows how best to work our mistakes for good. That being said, I feel its more profitable to understand His way and pattern to minimise our loses,  heartaches and even time over 'unanswered prayers'.  Remember the Israelites, one act of doubt resulted in 40 years of roaming in the wilderness!

The life He has planned out for us is greater than we can imagine, and we have those little things that He has placed in our hands to help us reach our full potential - people, talents, desires, locations, finance, etc. We only need to open our eyes to see the prospects. Abraham's children as many as the stars in the sky began with one-Isaac. God planned  a beautiful green earth full of people, He began with 2 people and a garden. He asked them to multiply and to tend the garden so man can learn to work with what he has to bring about an increase. We have to learn the same.

This is just a quick note to remind us not to be too quick to throw away or be disgruntled about the little things. Rather, we ought to be thankful and to thankfully work out the big things out of our little. If the man in the little story above had not put the cactus in a pot to grow, the beautiful flower that he longed for never would have come out. I guess the key thing here is to remember that He makes all things beautiful in time, however, before then He needs us to do a little bit of work as well, after-all, we are co-workers and partners with Him. 

Every forest began with a seed. If you throw the seed away, you will lose the forest. Your destiny is already in your hands, but you have got to work it out.

Work it xx

What's In Your Cup?

It's been nearly 3 weeks since I wrote. Its been very difficult to write for some reasons but I'm glad I'm back now :-). 

Today's title is a phrase that has been on my mind and heart for a few weeks. During my last visit to the salon, my stylist- Caroline spoke to me again about my persistently dry hair. I defended myself saying that I had been moisturising my hair daily (twice actually) as she had advised. Also I had even changed my hair product to a 'better' one. She later asked me about my fluid intake. I told her I go through seasons where I drink a few glasses of water per day however, there are also those times when I hardly drink a glass of water in a day although I may drink tea about 3 times in a day.

Caroline said I need to drink enough water (not tea or juice or some of that diluted junk I feed on) everyday. She concluded that I may be dehydrated. My thought was "moisturising my hair is one thing but I also need to 'moisturise' from inside". I took a one week challenge to drink 2 litres of water daily and for that week, my hair felt healthier and I barely felt that annoying itch on my scalp. The additional benefit obviously included the many trips to the loo - which is great for my legs by the way :-). Basically I felt good from within and my hair was grateful too.

My sister recently moved from an apartment to another and this was her thought regarding her former place: "U know what  learnt from my previous flat? When you see the building you immediately fall in love with it. It looks sooo perfect. But when you get in you realise it isn't perfect after all. I thank God for the place but I didn't enjoy my stay there because there was no reception anywhere. So relating that to our everyday lives - not all that glitters is gold and sometimes we need to look beyond the physical and look within." 

My thought was how easy it is for us to focus so much on what we and others see of us rather than who we are. We want to be happy and we want to look good for the world to see, but how often do we stop to ask "who am I?". Happiness is great but joy brings  true satisfaction. It is an easy trap to fall into to admire someone because of what they have achieved in life. If only you know the baggage they may be carrying within, you may change your mind. Unless you are willing to sell your soul for temporal things.

This truth applies to many areas of life - relationships, sometimes we make choices based on what we see or want rather than who a person is. In challenges, sometimes we see our problem rather than the power which is at work in us to make changes. I often find people who try to use abs belts to get rid of belly fat funny. You may have seen the adverts with the models standing there with their flat stomach and tight six packs. Please do not fall for these ads. Let me tell you two secrets: Firstly, the models did not get  their abs from using the product. Secondly, strap that belt around your waist 24hours a day, 7 days a week and you will get no abs unless you adopt a balanced and healthy lifestyle which would include some abs exercises. How will a belt strapped to your body make changes when the problem is deep beneath your skin? LoL.

To make this clearer, dress up a donkey, feed it the best of fodder, in fact, brush its fur everyday it will never become a horse.  It will only become a pampered donkey. Still a donkey. Feed a chicken magic corn everyday and it would never become an eagle. An eagle is an eagle and a chicken is chicken. I was applying moisturisers on my hair and scalp, but I was still dehydrated so my hair and scalp remained dry. We should be more concerned about who we are rather than what we are. Not to say that the latter is not important however the former is more significant and lasting. If I gave you a golden chalice filled with poison, would you drink? No. What if the chalice was made of gold from the garden of Eden?  Erm, no. Why not? Because the drink is harmful. All of us are like this golden chalice filled with a drink. The chalice is what people see however what people taste of you is the liquid in it.

Have you ever encountered a person who is so good looking and perfect to look at but when they behave badly they do not appear so good looking anymore? If you have, that's what I am talking about. Otherwise what I am saying is your character is who you are, what you show to the world is your personality. No matter how great your personality is, a poor character will cause you and others many problems. 

What you make up and put up for people to see will never alter the person you are within. Its time to focus more on the person within. you Many times we try to create the perfect image for the world to see however true beauty lies within. Create a new you from the inside out today.

Look within x



(c) 2010 Arielle Ajibade 2010