Originally published on April 6, 2020
I Am Not a Shrinky Dink
Ok…stay with me on this. During my childhood, there was an arts and crafts toy that looked like a plastic coloring page. You could color the picture, cut it out and then—put in the oven. There it would magically shrink into a key chain that your mother would cherish always. I loved, loved, loved Shrinky Dinks. I loved to watch them in the oven as the heat would cause them to shrivel and the colors would intensify.
Fast forward about 40ish years. I have found that maybe the reason for this guilty childhood pleasure is the fact that a lot of times I feel like a Shrinky Dink. Full disclosure: I do not like conflict. I will do anything to flee from it, resolve it or (wait for it —shrink back from it. I suppose this is why Hebrews 10:39 has been rolling around in my head recently.
“But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.”
It seems in these words that the Spirit is urging me to not cower in the face of adversity. He is telling me to stand firm—to stand my ground and buckle down. For the longest time this was all the meaning that this scripture held for me. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this past week something totally unexpected. The shrinking back can not only be from the difficulty that I am facing, but it also can be from God Himself. This threw an entirely different light on and breathed new life into this passage. God is telling me in times of hardship not to retreat and withdraw from His presence or His people. These are the times to remain rooted in who we are as Christ followers. We are His and we are made for Him—our confidence, our identity and our faith rests solely in Him.
It’s when we realize this that our faith and trust can exponentially expand. And it is then that the second part of the verse comes into play. God saves us.
His delight is in His children, and He loves to provide and care for us. He is at work all around us both in seen and unseen ways. God is doing the heavy lifting, we just need to trust in His character.
As we all go through conflict and turmoil in these days, God is reminding us to run to Him, to trust in who He says He is and to remember what He has done for us in the past. Through faith in Him we have been/ are/ and will continue to be saved.
Todd Pullin
