Julie Covington, a fellow creative-kindred spirit, kindly invited me to join her in her booth at the Memorial Day Flea Market in Brownville, NE this past weekend. We spent all day Saturday in the triple degree heat, guzzling liquids and interacting with customers. My little book table was surrounded by her wide assortment of delightful products, including little stuffed friends known as Cuddle Monsters.
Some were sad or goofy looking (like the one pictured), and others were happy or spunky in appearance. But each one was uniquely fun and absolutely hug-able. They also came in a variety of sizes, from the “mini” monsters (my favorite) on up to those perhaps two feet in height.
Being surrounded by those adorable monsters for hours led me to think about the monsters in our lives. Some look a lot worse than others. And some seem comparatively larger or harder to fight. But each of them – or the sum total of them all – can, at times, overwhelm us or bog us down in everything negative, painful, anxious, scary.
Yet in the grand scheme of life and the world, the One who created you and me knows about each monster we will encounter long before we do. Some monsters are truly scary, but He dwarfs them. And other monsters are actually small and harmless, and He shows us how to pat them on the head and send them on their way.
And those times when we may personally feel like monsters? Yes, He can also meet us in those times, at those places, and turn what was bad into something good.
