Someone asked me if I was mesmerized.
Yes. I was. I am.
Especially tonight.
I’m in a different world.
Earlier this week I was in a chemistry lab making stirring rods. We start with long slender rods of glass, and we break them down to size. They are rough on the ends and in need of polishing to be usable. To polish them, they must be held over a Bunsen burner so the glass can melt and become smooth.
Students were working all around me.
I didn’t notice. That is until one asked if I was mesmerized.
Without much thought I said, “I just can’t look away.”
The glass stirring rods must be held under the small flame. I was holding them. Since the stirring rods had to be held in the flame, I couldn’t look away at the students because if I did, my hand would drift and the stirring rod wouldn’t be in the flame anymore; therefore, it wasn’t getting polished. Also, when I would look away, since I had been focused on this flame for so long, the world made me a kind of dizzy feeling. So, I would go back into my world – this flame. I was mesmerized.
I’m sitting in bed tonight, and I have no idea why this thought came to me. I felt like I needed to write it down.
The flame is Jesus.
He is the light.
As long as I was focused on the light, I was in a different world than people who are… you know… of this world. As long as I was looking at the flame, I could keep the stirring rod in its place. It was getting polished. Oh snap. I am the stirring rod. I was broken, but in the light I can be polished. If I am looking at Christ, I am being polished. If I take my eyes off the light, I get dizzy. I must stay focused. I want to stay focused. I am also me, as in the holder. I am holding the stirring rod, which is me, but I am also the holder. I must keep the stirring rod in the light so it can continue to get polished. I can’t let it wonder out of the flame. I can not let myself wonder out of the light.
Where did this come from? I love when God visits me and I get to sit in his presence, in his flame, and just be mesmerized.
I can’t look away from Jesus.
There’s so much symbolism connected in my mind and I can’t express it in words. To whoever reads this I hope God gives you the ability to see this the way He let me see it.
God knew exactly what I needed tonight. I was about to start reading a book (which is rare, almost non-existent). This was a book one of my Chemistry professors gave me. I opened it and saw where he had written 2 Corinthians 5:7. This is also the professor whose lab I was making stirring rods in. I was about to pray for another one of my Chemistry professors when all of this flashed back to me. Did I mention that my first bible was given to me by my High School Chemistry teacher… and I am currently working on getting my Masters to teach chemistry…
There’s just something about a Chemistry teacher that is haunting me.
For we live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7
