Unwanted Parts…Circumcised Heart More thoughts
Disclaimer: Remember, my “previous life” found me in the role of a maternity nurse. I apologize if this post makes some of you blush. I must admit, it’s an odd object lesson but since I was just on the subject of the Circumcised heart, I decided to share another object lesson that has been fermenting in my mind.
A full jar of foreskins was in the refrigerator. Nothing new or unexpected as every few weeks the large pharmaceutical company that was located near the hospital where I worked would come to get them. You see, we saved the foreskins that were generated by the circumcisions and the pharma company would use them for research on fetal stem cells they contained “back in the day”.
Seeing these in their little jar of formaldehyde changed things in me. First of all, on a practical level, it made me look at longneck, steamed clams differently. (The long neck that gets peeled off before you eat steamed clams, dipped in drawn butter, bears a striking resemblance to a little, formaldehyde-pickled foreskin). I was never really all that fond of clams to begin with and since I wasn’t really that fond of collecting the foreskins either, I stick to fried clams now, or better yet shrimp!
Another thing the memory of the jar has imprinted upon me though is how useful the byproducts of something unwanted can be. In God’s economy this is true as well. No, I am not going to soapbox here on the value of fetal tissue research or circumcision vs. not circumcising…sorry. What I am thinking of is that God collects some of our unwanted items also. God doesn’t have a big jar of heart-foreskins in His fridge. (If you read my last blog post about the Circumcised Heart you’ll get what I’m talking about). But you will find jars of tears all over the place in heaven. Psalm 56:8 says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”
See? That is another thing God is doing. He is writing down all my trials and sorrows in HIS BOOK. I find great comfort in that. God isn’t just sitting up in heaven, feet on the coffee table, remote-control in hand watching me struggle and squirm through life with a box of tissues on the couch beside Him for Him to dab His own holy eye when I get it “right” or I entertain Him with one of my frequent “cliff-hanger-moments”. That is not the God I love at all.
The real God I love is intimately involved in helping me throughout every aspect of my life…more like a Wii experience, I think. The only box of tissues is the Holy-Spirit-Comfort-Infused box which He hands me (lately quite frequently) as He whispers, “I know all about the Joy-Ride and you will make it through this, trust Me. Nestle into your seat and tell me all about it.”
I used to think that God said, “Tell me all about it” because He was simply writing it down as Psalm 56 describes. But as I have grown to love and understand Him a little bit more, I realize that the value of telling God all my cares and sorrows is three-fold.
1. Talking to God about my sorrows brings PEACE in the situation. Philippians 4:4b-8 says: “The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Jesus Himself told us, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)
2. I am told to tell God about it as an act of holy resistance. 1 Peter 5:7 says “Cast all your cares upon Him (Jesus) because He cares for you.” The same passage goes on to immediately tell us WHY God wants us to do this…it is because the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion trying to devour anyone and everyone…he does this when he makes me feel alone and singled out with suffering. The Bible says it like this: ”Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” (1Peter 5:8-9)
3. Jesus can make a difference in my circumstances.Ps 34:6 says, “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.” How that looks seems to be different every time…sometimes God does something amazing and my troubles are soon a distant memory but more often than not, the help of God’s PRESENCE is what releases my soul from the weight of the circumstances and I am given the peace IN the situation as described in #1. However that deliverance out of all my troubles looks, it is GOD that writes that into my story but the help of His presence is what keeps me sane in the process!
I’m really looking forward to the day when I get to heaven and see my jar of tears sitting on God’s windowsill (Believe me, after the last five years, it is a BIG jar!) I want to see the “behind the scenes video” of the uncut version of my life too. All those near-misses in which an angel got flattened instead of me but I didn’t even know it – or the alternative endings where satan started out with a plan for evil but God turned it around for my good and HIS glory!
I think the most stunning collection though will be the prayers of the saints. We’re told in Revelations that there is a huge bowl of incense which is the “Prayers of the Saints”. That bowl mixes your cries of anguish with my cries of anguish and collectively, as well as individually, we are offering a sweet aroma to the Lord.
No, I am very glad that God is not collecting a jar of heart foreskins. In fact, He promises that He throws our sin “As far as the east is from the west”…or it is buried in the deepest ocean…hmm, isn’t that where clams hang out too?
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Vicki Feinn was raised in a Christian home and accepted Jesus as her savior at the age of five. At the age of eleven she gave herself to the Lord to be used in any way He wanted to use her. 
