'Things are going to be different this time!'
How many times have I said that phrase?
Honestly, I lost count a few decades ago. I guess I had the desire for change; yet, I lacked the follow thorough. Perhaps, I was overwhelmed with the effort or too scare to venture outside my comfort zone. Now, I see some ingredients was missing within me.
Ingredients that the Gingerbread Girl had within her that made her story different than her brother's. She is not just a character in a children's storybook. For me, she is an example of the strong character traits in faith-filled life story.
Yet, I did not always see her the way I do now.
Not too many years ago, she seemed misguided to me. A person who takes same path that had a tragic ending for another, seems illogical and uneducated. But, putting one's life in the hands of the one who killed your sibling...well, that is insane, right?
Not to mention, she appeared to have major character flaws. She may have been covered with sweet candies, but her actions were sour. The girl appeared insensitive when she ran away from people who raised her and just wanted to love her. She showed attitude when she was told her pursuers that they could not catch her. She looked foolish when she accepted the fox invite for safe passage across the river in front of all those trying to devour her...
Over time, God begin to show me another perspective-His.
Her story did not end in tragedy, it ended in triumph. Something must have been underneath her candy coated exterior for that to happen. But who was she...on the inside? What did I miss? Was the story's ending the big picture key to unlocking her truth self?
To learn who she really was, I was going to have to take a deeper look. Lucky or not for me, I am a deep thinking. So I examined her name's meaning.
Ginger-
The ginger flower is a symbol of strength. The root was many health benefits such as protection against disease. In dishes, it is flexible; it can take on a sweet flavor in one dish and a spicy flavor in another.
Bread-
Bread is a symbol of life. It gives fuel for perseverance and provides daily nutrients. It, too, is adaptable. Varying in its appearance, texture, taste and shape.
Girl-
Female, oh course, but there is so much more to a girl. One may be a dreamer, lover of love and its happy-ending stories. In her greatest, she is a bearer of life (not only in flesh, but spirit), a nurturer, and a heart transformer. At her best, she is flexible and resourceful.
To uncover what I was missing, I have to change my angle. I look at her story from back to front, page to page, line to line. It was when that I knew examine her make-up. In other words, her recipe. So, I divided her dry (negative) ingredient characteristics from her wet (positive) ingredient characteristics.
I placed the insensitive flour, the foolish baking soda, prideful salt, and sassy spices in the dry ingredients mixing bowl. Then, I set the ingredients aside.
Next, I put the resourceful butter, attentive and compassion sugars, clever molasses, and athletic egg in the wet ingredient mixing bowl. Then, I reread the story's instruction, mixed them together, cut out the shape, added the courageous candies and let that cookie bake in my mind for a time while I came to this conclusion...
In the beginning of her story, she was formed by others. They added the ingredients, decided what amount of each she needed. They knead the dough, picked out the cookie cutter that form her physical shape and chose the candies that defined her physical characteristics.
It was in the heat of the oven, that she woke up. Despite the heat, she listened well. She heard all the details of her brother's tragic story and how the fox tricked him.
I can imagine as the spices were infusing within her and her ingredients were bonding together that she took that information, formed a plan, and waited for an opportunity to enact it. As soon as that oven door cracked open enough for her to escape, she rose from the sheet and seize the opportunity to slip right through the open oven door.
The strong molasses within allowed her to smoothly past by the old woman and man and begin the same path that her brother took. Like her brother, she was fresh out of the oven, so the aroma of her got the attention of farmers who left their fields to try and catch her. Then, her candies shine in the sunlight got a pig interested and waddled after her. Third, it was calf who saw her and wanted a cookie with its milk, so it mother and the calf chase the girl. Following the cow and calf, was an artist who though she was a masterpiece, group of dog and their walker, and children and their teachers.
Every one of her pursuers seemed to see something in her that they desired enough to drop everything and follow her. Despite their open desires to devour her, she welcomed them. On the river's edge her journey appeared to be coming to an end. Predictively, the same fox approached her and offers her safe passage across the river. Knowing what the fox has done, she makes him promise that he will not hurt her. She shakes not believing him, but her dress of courageous candies equips her to get on the fox anyhow. It is as though, she said, "Let's Ride."
On the river's edge her journey appeared to be coming to an end. Predictively, the same fox approached her and offers her safe passage across the river. Knowing what the fox has done, she makes him promise that he will not hurt her. She shakes not believing him, but her dress of courageous candies equipped her to get on the fox anyhow. It is as though, she said, "Let's Ride" , knowing what he was up to it.
The fox played its game of alluring the cookie to its snout. Yet, as she was in just the right position for it to gobble her up, she took a strand of her licorice hair and tied the fox's snout closed. The fox tired to fight her by bucking up and down. She did not only hold on, she directed him back to shore where she instructed the crowd who had pursued her to follow her back to the old couple's home. They did.
Once the fox was secured in the kitchen, she helped the couple prepare cookies for the whole crowd. Her stories end with the old couple's house full of people and animal friends as well as her training the fox how to behave using gingerbread crumbs.
I hope you see now that the gingerbread girl utilized what she was made of to conquer the obstacles in her path. She was equipped for the beginning of her story to bring people together and outfox the fox. She was not running away from those who loved her. She was trying to help them by bringing others to them. On top of it, she did not want to kill the fox, she wanted to help him change.
Looking back at the story, I think the greatest characteristics that the Gingerbread Girl had was her heart of faith. She had faith that her plan was going to work. They she would be able to outrun the hungry crowd, capture the fox, and use it to lead the crowd back to the house where their hungers would be meant.
I want to be like the Gingerbread Girl. I know that God has put the ingredients inside of his believers that she or he will need, he mold us and shaped us into the person that we need to be to reach people that need what we have to offer. He allowed us to bake in the heat of trials and struggles so that we will rise into the opportunities that he was for us. While we are baking, he desires for us to listen to others as they share their stories of pain and lost, so we will learn from their mistakes as well as develop compassion for them in our hearts.
Still, faith takes courage and a lot of it. Like the gingerbread girl, we must be equipped in a shield of courageous candies and use them to overcome the obstacles in our path. People of this world are looking for something, but they are not aware of what they really need. They may desire what others have and they are not afraid to devour them to get it. That is why, as God's people, we have to show them what we are made of and who we are made from. We cannot crave to fears and resist certain threats to our lives. We must take the ride. Not to bloat about outfoxing the fox, but as a testimony to the power of faith. We must use what God equipped us with to conquer evil and show people that all things are possible with God. When we are faced with sly or difficult people, we need to examine their recipe by taking a closer look at the ingredients within them. When the worst people in the world have positive (wet) characteristics even though the dry ingredients dominate the recipe.
Furthermore, when we show them that we are not only believers by mouth, but we are believers by actions, we must lead them back to the one who has made us who we are. We got to show them the recipe, so that they will taste of the fruit of God's mercy and grace. It is in that place that God can full their hungry so they stop devours what is of this world. With the aid of the Holy Spirit, he can guide them with bread crumbs so that will become doers of the word and not just hears.
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