Thursday 8 January 2015

Broken Stars

by Dianne Riley

There seems to be a theme running in the recent posts.....so I thought maybe I should write something different, but no inspiration came, maybe there is a message for us all from God......what do you think?

My girlfriend Ang and I decided to do some Christmas cooking. 
I love to cook and my gal Ang loves to have a go.  
So Christmas star cookies were the object of our adventure together in the kitchen.  
Settling on a date became a task all by itself, let alone getting our aprons on!  Back and forth the texts went as we tried to match up a time before Christmas day drew near, too near for baking cookies.

Finally the Sunday before Christmas we had Ang over for a family dinner.
Then the cooking began. 
                                                                                                                    
                                                                      
Wish I had taken a couple of photos, the concentration on her face was beautiful, not to mention the little dancing action she was getting on as she stamped the cookie cutter into the pastry.
Tray after tray went into the oven.  

Finally with more pastry ready in her hands, she asked “have we made enough?” So, we had made enough.

It was fun. We laughed and chatted, then we dusted our little stars with icing sugar and it was time for Ang to go home with her share of the cookies packed into a snap lock bag.  Great plans we had for those cookies. Off to work they would go with us the very next day to share with our respective colleagues.

Then the text arrived.  ‘My stars are all broken’.  We laughed together at all the effort coming to crumbs and no cookies to share.
I messaged her ‘There has to be a sermon in there somewhere’.
And for me there was a God inspired message.  
My stars of writing have been broken.  Somewhere along the way I fell off the writing pathway. I have a folder of unfinished and unedited stories, just like Ang had a snap lock bag of bickie crumbs….and nothing to share.

Somewhere inside me I know I have something to share.

When our stars are broken, no matter what those stars might be, we do need to look to the Saviour.

Thankfully Christmas does come around every year, the reminder of God in flesh coming to us, meeting us.  I write on my gift tags every year ‘Wise men still seek Him’, and those wise men followed a star.  The star brought them to the Saviour.

My star cookies, in fact Ang’s broken star cookies, brought me to the Saviour again.  To seek His guidance to show me how to find my way back onto the writing pathway.  So I won’t be a spectator in the year to come, I will be taking a fresh page and writing, writing, writing.


PS My gal Ang has decided I can show her how to make gift tags next year; we’ll hang up our aprons for our next adventure in the kitchen…

You can find out more about me here.....
www.dianneriley.com.au I have self-published a book to encourage girls to find their significance in Jesus.


  

14 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing that Di. It looks like a few of us have fallen off the cookie wagon ... um ... writing wagon ... but it's great to know we can jump back on with God's help and that He always gives a message to share. And cookie crumbs aren't all bad. Don't the broken ones have fewer calories? ;)

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    1. Yes Nola you are sooooo right far less calories
      :-)
      so nice to come here....
      and find some encouragement from each other

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  2. Good for you Di. Wonderful that falling off the wagon led you to lean in closer to the Lord. Wishing you well with your writing in 2015 but more importantly your leaning into Jesus.

    Blessings,

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    1. Thanks Ian ....I am looking forward to seeing what God has in store

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  3. Thanks, Di. I could easily relate to your cooking efforts, since more than a few of the little Christmas angel shortbread biscuits I make tend to end up with their wings broken! Maybe there's a sermon in that too??!!

    You know, I think it's not until we stop for a while with our writing that we realise how much effort goes into such an endeavour. So maybe God knew what you needed, Di, with that break. All the best for the coming year.

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    1. Thanks Jo-Anne I will be thinking of you next Christmas with your broken-winged angels and wondering if you found a sermon with them!

      I signed up for an online writing course for some 'get started' inspiration!

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  4. Hi Di
    Oh dear - poor cookies, but so good that they pointed to a greater truth :) Hoping that you get back to writing again as God is your strength and wisdom.

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    1. Thank you Jeanette ....Love God's imagination, He used the loaves and fish..... Now cookies! So amazing the personal relationship we can have with Him :)

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  5. May you turns those crumbs back into words that will impact lives.

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  6. You only ever really know someone when you spend a lifetime with them. Very proud of the lessons in life Di has helped me to learn through her clever and passionate writing and keen to see what is coming.

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  7. Fantastic post. Believe me, I need Him everyday. He is my lifeline. I really enjoyed reading this.

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