Bracelets and Cowboy Boots and Jesus and Such

Several years ago I was given an expensive to me bracelet (think silver beads and leather that wrapped several times around my wrist) and I wore it nearly every day. It fit all the criteria for world’s most perfect bracelet: matched everything I owned- it was silver for goodness sake, it was comfortable and it just reeked cool chick.

I usually take off all my jewelry (except my wedding rings, warning to newlyweds you’ll lose them if you take them off, EVER) when I enter my house in the evening as I don’t really like feeling encumbered. I have a big bowl of “jewels” on the kitchen counter right next to the back door. You might call them beads and bangles, but to me they are emerald and gold.

So back to this special bracelet on this particular day, probably two winters ago. I took my silver and leather wear it daily bracelet off later than usual. I missed my ritual jewel purging at the back door upon entry into my warm cozy house. Realizing later that I hadn’t left my very favorite bracelet in the whole wide world in “the bowl”, I had the fleeting thought that I needed to put it somewhere extraordinarily intentional and where I wouldn’t lose it. I have never seen that bracelet again, but I know it’s somewhere safe and sound. And lost.

I additionally tend to stockpile shoes as they cramp my style when I am relaxing at home. I am a barefoot or slipper kind of gal. I have favorite stash places. In my closet. By the back door. On the steps going upstairs so they might have a chance to make it back to their home if I don’t walk by them 500 times before I eventually grab them and put them back in my closet. Boots get thrown into the coat closet because boots go with coats, right?

Typically I can never find the pair of shoes I’m looking for when I’m getting dressed. If I’ve hidden my sneakers it won’t do much good to go to the gym. Perfect excuse to make lunch plans instead with a friend. But on the other hand if I can’t find my snow-boots that early morning dog walk through the frost on the cold grass won’t feel very comfortable.

So maybe my cool leather and silver bracelet is hanging with my cowboy boots somewhere safe. That seems logical. Very Sundance Catalog.

This makes me think about hiding my real treasure, my Jesus. If I leave Him in church, or at my spiritual friend Lizzie’s house, or even in the coffee shop where I sit writing this post, I might not be able to find him when I need him. When I need to wear Him like my favorite bracelet or my cowboy boots. When I need Him to take my next breath and certainly to get past a day when everyone on FaceBook seems to be going stark raving mad or mad at each other (it is Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day).

Unlike my bracelet or my fuzzy red slippers, I need Him at the ready every moment of EVERY day. I can’t afford to hide Him, to lose Him, to leave Him just past my reach. I need Him to comfort a grieving friend, to offer a kind word and a cup of hot cocoa to the homeless addicted man on the cold street in front of my favorite coffee shop. I need Him to navigate me through Inauguration Day when so many people I love are seemingly without hope. And I need Him on the daily to breathe peace into my too often anxious soul.

I might hide my bracelet, I might hide my sneakers but I will never ever hide my Jesus. This little light of mine. I’m going to let it shine.

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