When I'm home, I spend much of my time in our study. That's where all our reading material is. And that's where this handy, dandy computer is. Because of the book infested room, I also have a room diffuser filled with Nature's Spa scent and a wine glass with a Cabernet candle. Some time ago, my candle became all used up, so I brought another from the shop, where I sell that particular fragrance. Only this one had been delivered to me in a broken glass. I couldn't bear to throw it away, because the candle was perfectly fine, so I brought it home to use in the office/study. Well...it didn't fit the previous wine glass because the curve of the glass gets narrower at the top. (Just didn't think of that) So it has sat with it's bottom wedged in the top of the glass so I could burn it.

I've looked at that poor thing every time I sit at the computer desk, and have wished there was a way I could get that candle in it's proper place. Well, this morning a revelation hit me. "Why don't you slice the candle in little pieces and settle the wick down at the bottom center." I think it just might work! Well, as I began slicing, the Lord began speaking to my heart, (thus the picture of a work in progress).

This is what "settled" in my spirit:
As we sit all pretty atop the vessel waiting to consume us, the surroundings take away our fragrance so much so you can't really tell what sort of fragrance we are unless you get close enough to "smell us out". BUT, when a fire is lit in the middle of us, our fragrance fills a room and all who enter can tell who we are, because of the type of fragrance we are putting off. It gets better...as God whittles away at us (because we are full of ourselves-not able to be full of Him), we are gradually dropped into His wine glass. He is whittling away at the things that keep us from being fully immersed in His love. Once we are are "whittled up" and laying (resting) in His wine glass, we can once again be lit from within the place we were always meant to be and the fragrance is not only fragrant, but beautiful in its rightful place. WOW! All I can say at this point is...SELAH!

Little did I know that back in 2008 God would use a damaged candle to speak understanding to me. Matthew 9:17 says this..."Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." Selah.

Something I learned during the whittling process was that the closer I got to the core (the wick) the more flexible it became. But I didn't want to damage the very thing that I could use to light it back up and release the fragrance once again. I believe that God preserves the personality (our wick)He created us with, so that we could walk in the completeness He desired for us from the beginning, once we are connected fully with Him. The effects of the world (without God being in the center) have taken the full fragrance of our lives away. But once we invite Him to be the One who is in charge of our life, He will whittle away (sometimes painful) until our full beauty is reveal, all put back together. =} Thank you, Lord, for the whittling.