God’s Whispers
One morning, I was in the kitchen while my brother made brioche vanilla French toast with bacon. As I sat down to eat, I added some pineapple to it. While eating breakfast, I got lost in thought and stared into space. If you know me, I tend to stare off often, but this thought came to mind as I ate a tiny piece of pineapple.
I was getting frustrated because I couldn’t just take a bite off, and it cut itself in half. I had the choice to eat it whole or bite a piece and then gnaw at it to pull it off the pineapple cube. Let me tell you, it was holding on tight, too. It didn’t come off easily. In that moment of me gnawing at this pineapple piece, I felt the Holy Spirit say, “This is why it’s hard to let go of people and material things.”
Pulling the pineapple, I noticed little striations and fragments hanging off the fruit. If you think about it, that is something similar to what we leave behind once we give ourselves or a piece of ourselves to someone. We get so entangled in other people's lives that one day, we wake up and wonder how we got there. Fragments of our hearts get left with this person and that person. When God never intended that for us in the first place. We cry out to God, asking Why? Why did you put me through this? When in all reality, we did it to ourselves. We put ourselves there. He never wanted that for us.
When you look at the sides of the pineapple, there are little holes. That represents the bruises that people have gotten from life. People go through numerous different kinds of situations and struggles. Highs and lows. If we aren’t careful, we can get attached to the wrong piece of pineapple (wrong person, situation, etc.). In the beginning, it looked so good.
One time, my mom and I went to Publix, and we were going to purchase one that was already cut up. But instead, my mom chose to get the whole one because it was cheaper, and you get more out of it. On the outside, it looked so good, fresh, and delicious. But when we cut it open and saw all of the bruises and scars, it didn’t look as pleasant. Mom said, “Well, all you have to do is cut that part off,” but as I continued cutting, I realized it was a deep hole in the side of the pineapple. At that moment, I felt the Holy Spirit say that if you don’t get to the ROOT of your problems, don’t get honest with yourself and HIM. You’ll never get healed.
Our relationship is similar to that of pineapple. You can’t keep chopping away at the stems if you never dig up the soil and cut from the root. The same problems will keep coming back around. That same person will keep coming back around, staying in your life. That same addiction will keep coming back around, always being a nagging temptation.
Time and time again. Jesus calls us to get to the root of the issues here. If you say, “I don’t want you to struggle with this any longer.” He is trying to show you that you are like that pineapple already cut up for us. No holes or bruises. It's just a perfect cut-up pineapple ready to eat. But to get there, you may have to let Him remove what's there that will hurt you. God wants to cleanse you and me. He wants to make us in His image. To be more like Christ each day. Now, are we ever going to be perfect? No, that’s why Christ died for us; He knew.
Our Jehovah-Rapha, our healer. Healing isn’t a linear process. All He asks for is our yes, and he will take care of the rest.
“In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” Proverbs 3:6
-Written by, Macy Godwin
