My Whale Collection

Hello! Pull up a chair and hear all about my
Whale Collection *Ü*

First of all, I started collecting whales a couple of years ago.
There is an interesting story behind WHY I collect whales.

I accepted Christ as my savior as a young child, but
as often times happens, I strayed away after high school
and thought I could "run the show" without God's help.
WRONG
After going through some hard times and seeing what a mistake
I had made, I WANTED that relationship back with God.
I wanted it more than anything, but there was a problem.
GUILT
I was totally consumed with guilt about the bad things I had done.
Now we aren't talking about illegal things. Luckily, God was there
with me during those times, even though I thought I was hiding
from Him and he must have kept me out of legal troubles.
But I felt like I had totally betrayed God's trust...
almost like I didn't deserve to be trusted again
even though I was extremely sorry for the things I had done.

I prayed I don't know how many times for forgiveness and
looking back, I wonder if I expected the Heavens to just open
up and God speak right in my ear and say, "You are forgiven".
I was having some MAJOR problems forgiving MYSELF!
There I was again, controlling my life and not even giving God the
CHANCE to forgive me when I should have turned it over to Him
a long time before I actually did!

I had tried talking to my mom about these things going on...
spiritual questions I had about forgiveness and repentance.
She was such a blessing in my life...STILL is!
She not only told me that even though I had sinned
I was still LOVED,but she had verses to back it up!
She told me all about Jonah's relationship with God one day.
How he had intentionally disobeyed God's plans for him
and how things got REALLY bad for Jonah.
Jonah was on a boat with other men when a terrible
storm started and threatened the lives of all of them.
Jonah knew that it was happening because of his running
from God's intended plans for him so he had the men
throw him overboard. Of course the whale swallowed Jonah
and he prayed and prayed to be spared somehow.
God did just that! And Jonah went on to preach
exactly where God wanted him to.

Unfortunately, my mom lives a long way from me...
1000 miles to be exact!
Since we are so far apart, we send each other little
care packages from time to time.
These little boxes are so fun..when you open them, there are
are little odds and ends that we have picked up for each other
from here and there...a key chain, t-shirt, card, etc.

One day a box came for me from my mom.
I opened it up and inside was a beautiful hand-blown glass whale!
Inside the whale is a figure of Jonah made of glass also. It is
truly amazing how someone made this..the glass is ultra thin and fragile.
Mama reminded me with her message,
"Don't give up...God has plans for you just like Jonah."

Mama STILL send whales to me...they are more precious than gems,
for they along with my mom's understanding and wisdom,
brought me back to my Precious Lord and Savior.
I will forever be grateful, Mama

I have posted a picture here of my whale collection
I will have to try to take more as this didn't turn
out very clear :(

Graphics on this page are provided by:
Country Mouse Graphics