Gold. God and Gordon Ramsay….

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The new terra cotta wall just looked a bit… domestic… normal… bland….ummm… it needed something.  It needed: Gold! Of course.  So me and my girls got to it!  A few of us gilded and one captured it all on my camera (a treat for her… and for me to see what she sees to be beautiful).  It turned into this wonderful art project with my daughters and I…the whole experience was beautiful and not only because we were all covered in gold…which of course did help.  The end result is warm…toasty actually, and the gold leafing catches the lights, the candles and the fireplace in a way which makes you feel like the room itself is actually alive.  Now when you walk through  the wall changes as you walk by, as if breathing light in and out.

God and Gordon Ramsay  …

(stick with me while I flush it all out)

Imagine you sit at a lovely Sunday Dinner prepared by Gordon Ramsay.  The food is a feast for the eyes let alone what it will taste like. Gordon is  eating along with everyone else.  He is enjoying the company which normally collects on any given Sunday.  One of the guests cuts into a piece of chicken and smirks, “umm this is undercooked in the center”.  What would you imagine Chef Ramsay’s response? Does he?….

1. go round eyed and  confused asking to see it.
2. freeze and glare at the guest then cuss out a rebuttal .
3. with every bit of mustered compassion, walk down to inspect.
4. not even flinch in his conversation…he’s GordonfreakingRamsey he doesn’t “undercook chicken”.

I imagine he doesn’t flinch.  I imagine he is so secure in his abilities and who he is as a chef… that he knows ~ that he knows ~ that he knows the chicken is cooked to perfection.  He is so secure in who he is as one of the world’s best chefs that if anyone is mistaken it would be the guest.  I doubt he would even cuss out a rebuttal because he knows ~ that he knows ~ that he knows he needn’t waste his breath defending himself…. because he is secure in who he is.   He wouldn’t even take offense … because not only does he know~ that he knows~ that he knows he is at the top of the food chain (pun intended)  he knows his worth and he rests in it.

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In Matthew 13:56 -57 … Jesus goes to Nazareth and taught a bit… and what happened? The town’s people get all offended,  “who does He think He is? Isn’t that our little Jesus…weren’t his sisters just at the market…isn’t he the carpenters son? Isn’t He Mary’s son?”   Does this say anything about Jesus?  No it says a lot about how these people viewed their worth.  Not only did they flinch… they freaked out…they actually got offended!  Nothing good could come out of this town.  They aren’t saying,”we are an amazing people so of course a Messiah could come from here…I mean, we are amazing!”  It says they were actually “offended”.  They take offense to the idea that anything of worth could come out of there.  They flinch, they take offense because their is such insecurity in who their people are.

You can’t  take offense unless their is a shakiness in you that can be offended… that can feel the sting because there was already a sore spot ,an insecurity.  When you are secure… when you know who you are…Where you came from…. a tabloid can write the very worst story about you….your critics can show up at your door…

If you know who you are…

When you know you are His Favorite…

when you know what He calls you…

when you really know it… not only do you not take offense..

but you don’t even flinch…