A Decent Egg

barnstormingblog

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird:
it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. 
We are like eggs at present. 
And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. 
We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. Lewis from Mere Christianity

….in the garden there was nothing which was not quite like themselves—
nothing which did not understand
the wonderfulness of what was happening to them—
the immense, tender, terrible, heart-breaking beauty and solemnity of Eggs.

… if an Egg were taken away or hurt the whole world would whirl round and crash through space and come to an end—
~Frances Hodgson Burnett from The Secret Garden

I revel in being the good egg.
Smooth on the surface,
gooey inside, often a bit scrambled,
yet ordinary and decent,
indistinguishable from others,
blending in,
not making waves.

It’s not been bad staying just as I am.
Except I can no longer remain like this.

A dent or two have appeared in my outer shell
from bumps along the way,
and a crack up one side
extends daily.

It has come time to change or face inevitable rot.

Nothing can be the same again:
the fragments of shell
left behind
must be abandoned
as useless confinement.

Newly hatched
and transformed:
there is the wind beneath my wings.
I’ll soar toward an endless horizon
that stretches beyond eternity,
no longer ordinary.

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One thought on “A Decent Egg”

  1. I read this quickly, as I was a little bemused by C.S. Lewis’ seemingly erudite but very clever excerpt -a technique that he used often in his Christian writing….
    Then — I read your comment, dear Emily, and did a double — triple retake. It was like
    a time bomb to me — the slow fuse having been lit long ago in my late teenage years when the
    “Hound of Heaven” Himself was trying to make me stop fleeing Him and listening to what He was trying to say to me: about the ‘gifts’ that He had been trying so hard to give to me —
    a precious commodity that I would finally recognize at age 32 as His ‘Presence” and ‘Food for my soul” – forever.
    It was then that I I ceased running from Him — amid an emotionally crippling and spiritual upheaval in my life that began ca.1945 through 1964.

    The memories all came back to me when I read your comment, Emily — all in its entirety, but especially the fifth paragraph:

    “Nothing can be the same again: the fragments of shell left behind
    must be abandoned as useless confinement….”

    And nothing has been the same again. There is still pain and suffering in my temporary human
    existence – and outside as I view the fearful ungodly situation in most of our world today. The gifts that I have been given have created an indwelling sweetness and surety of His Presence within and that reality assures me of His Truth and Hope as I wait to reach my forever ‘home,”

    (Stopping to listen to Him as the relentless “Hound” and opening the door where the
    latch is inside (Revelation 3:20) are sacred personal invitations that must not be declined
    or ignored!)

    Thank you for this posting today. It is all a welcome gift from a ‘Sister in Christ.”

    Liked by 1 person

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