Blooming Tea

-
I've just discovered something beautiful and amazing and it's commonly known as "Blooming Tea".

These are made of tea leaves that are hand-sewn into bundles. They're small and tight and not very attractive and there's no indication of what is hidden inside...

But...when these are placed in a teapot and boiling water is poured over them they blossom right before your eyes. (You can watch it here and I suggest you do!)

Wow, what a surprise! It's incredible how hundreds of individual tea leaves carefully joined together can, under the right conditions produce something beautiful and good for you.

It reminds one of Romans 8:28 doesn't it? If a tea crafter can select individual, unrelated tea leaves and bind them together into one tea ball that reveals a whole greater than the individual parts, then why do we doubt that God can not and is not doing the same thing with all that happens in our lives?

No, really, I'm asking that. How is it that we have a view of God that is so small that we assume that the trouble and trials in our lives are occurring without His knowledge and for absolutely no reason?

We have no way of knowing how what we are experiencing now will be used in what is in our future. I Corinthians 1:3 tells us that "For when God comforts us, it is so that we, in turn, can be an encouragement to you." and you know how that has already been true in your life; how because of your experience you've been able to relate to and encourage someone else going through something similar. I have some friends struggling to maintain a pregnancy who were just introduced to a couple who had the same experience last year and the comfort and understanding they've received from connecting with them is beyond description. Perhaps you've been in such a place and found hope because of someone else relating their pain and the hope they'd found through it and realize that you can too.

Now the tea flower needs to have boiling or near boiling water poured over it to activate the changes, and none of us have any desire for that to happen in our lives. I'd like my life cool and temperate thank you very much, no boiling stresses or circumstances for me! But, when those times come (and they will) perhaps all the things you've been learning in your time with the Father will reveal that He's been doing a work in your life, hidden to you, but one that now brings both honor and glory to His name. Perhaps as you obey His voice in the small everyday kinds of things that He brings to your heart, He is working in you something that someday will be revealed as far greater and more amazing than we could ever imagine...

Who would think a dried up walnut shaped pod could become a large blooming flower filling a pot of hot water with an aromatic and healthful beverage? And if men could invent this, what might God be planning in our lives?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friends

-
2008 has been such a relational year so far for me. I set up a Facebook account and from there discovered high school and college friends and even kids I used to baby-sit who now have growing families of their own. It’s been a time of reconnecting to people I never knew I’d have contact with again and it’s been interesting to see how we are the same people today that we were twenty years ago; only a little more worn out from use! When I was a child, I remember hearing in a sermon that in your life you will be lucky if you can count the number of true friends you have on one hand. That was preposterous to me! One hand? Five friends? I had way more than five friends! Of course I didn’t have the perspective at twelve that I do now. Now I understand. My definition of friend has matured with my years and I am so blessed by those “friends” who have matured along with my definition. Is there any thing in this world as amazing as a friend? One with whom you can open your soul and know they are
Read more

Safe

-
My daughter came stumbling into our room at 4 a.m. “I had a bad dream”, she said as she crawled into bed. Did she want to talk about it? An immediate, adamant “No!” Ten minutes she was sound asleep safe in her dad’s arms. Safe When she experienced this bad thing she went to where she would feel safe. Later in the morning she told me about her bad dream and it wasn’t as scary to her in the 7 am brightness as it had been in the dark. Could we have explained that it wasn’t that bad and just a dream to her in the middle of the night? Not a chance, at that point she just needed to feel surrounded and protected. When trouble comes, overwhelming troubles like the constant crashing of waves on the seashore, where do you go to be safe? I wrap myself in scripture and claim the promises that God is… a refuge and help in time of need (Psalms 46) the Shepherd who supplies my needs and walks with me through the valleys (Psalms 23) the God who knows the way that I am taking (Job 23) who delights in e
Read more

There is a man named Don Casey

-
Image
There was a man named Job. He was a godly man (...that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil - Job 1:1) A careful man ( When the days of the feast had run their course Job would rise early...and offer burnt offerings...For Job said, 'It may be that my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts' Job 1:5) A faithful man   (...this Job did continually. Job 1: 5) A man blessed by God. (...this man was the greatest of all the people of the east. Job 1: 3) but then, apparently , he wasn't. His children were crushed when the house collapsed, enemies and fire destroyed all the animals and servants. He was a man suddenly engulfed by calamity and inundated by infirmities; covered in boils from head to foot. His wife told him to curse God and die. His friends told him all he had done to deserve such judgement from God. And Job wondered about it all and  asked God "Why?". There is a man named Don Casey.
Read more