Truth is I have at least two beautiful reasons today to make a social media post and as I toss them around in my mind, the Spirit seems to lead me toward a second installment of the *Real and Fake* series that I didn’t even realize it was a series till He leads me this way again and the Blondie in me realizes that The Lord Himself has me in a reality series of my own life… So how better to process it than to roll on some Frankincense oil and think how frankincense was brought as a gift to Jesus and I ask that my life and the words I peck out be a gift to Him. I turn the flame on in gas fireplace and ask that the Holy Spirit’s flames wake up in me as I nestle beneath my favorite pom-pom blanket in the feels-like-leather white chair the Salesman picked out at TJMaxx that has become my favorite.
Yesterday was the day to return the rubber chicken to my Darlene friend and she thought it proper that we “eat more chicken” for the exchange. She is brilliant. So, I got him ready to go in my nest/bag.
We may have cackled when the cashier asked Darlene if she wanted chicken on her salad!
All fun and jokes aside. We had the best Jesus lovin’ lunch ever. We shared joys and heartaches and prayer requests and real life. We laughed and the chicken jokes just flowed! If you don’t have a Darlene friend, get ya one – and she owns a rubber chicken! How fun is that?!
So, let me tell you how good the Lord is to me:
When I get home from returning the rubber chicken, there is a real life bird’s nest on my wreath on the back door!!!
A few weeks ago, I saw birds nesting on top of the wreath; but, this nest was right in the center and I don’t know if it is even possible that they could’ve built it while we were eating more chicken or not; but Lord as my witness, I saw it for the first time when I returned home.
The Real birds nested
When I returned the fake.
That teaches, and takes the cake.
Real returns when you return the fake.
Anyone else out there with me? We live in a world of real and fake:
fowl – chickens/birds
flowers
friends
fireplaces
furniture – white looks like leather chair
hair – yes, I have color and highlights
nails – yes, yes, yes.
eyelashes – oh the list can go on and on
Then I entered Denise’s home last night for a party and leaned over to smell some hydrangeas on her table and she hollered from the kitchen, “Those aren’t real.”
Oh, they looked real to me – they were even different sizes and shapes –
But, they were fake.
Then while sitting around her table, another friend syncopated the distinction between real and fake in friendships and her words were like fragrant, real flowers that I carried home in a vase with me. I turned the vase of words around in my thoughts and I realized the blooms of her words were life-giving.
Lord, please give me, us, discernment in these days of seemingly fake everything, to be wise
To not exchange the plastic for an eternal prize
Lord, give me, give us, eternal eyes.
May our spirit’s not dim for anything, but the Real, Eternal Prize.
You Jesus, are ever before us, help us to realize,
There is only One Prize.
Oh, in this life, we will encounter the real, and the fake,
But, there is only One that is lasting and will never bow, or break.
Jesus.
Jesus.
Jesus.
I thank You Lord, for another personal installment of *the Real and the Fake*. May I, may we, be more aware and make no mis-steps or mistakes, as we, journey on in the land of The Real and The Fake.