"Can I churn the butter, Grandma?"
When we visited my grandparents in the summer, I eagerly awaited my chance to churn butter. It started with Grandpa bringing in pails of foaming milk. Grandma strained it and sat it in the refrigerator until the cream rose to the top. On churning day, she poured the cream into the churn and put the lid down over the plunger. Grandma always reminded me, "Put your hand on this plunger and pump hard."
After an hour of churning the cream, the butter curds separated from the milk. Grandma scooped out the butter clumps, washed, and shaped them. She then pressed them into a butter mold carved with a design that imprinted a motif on top of the butter. After the butter hardened, she pushed it onto a glass dish. The motif design crowning it celebrated the purity and perfection of the butter.
When we receive Christ as our Savior, Satan's hold on our lives is broken, and our hearts lift toward God in worship. Just as the cream rose to the top of the milk, we are ready for the Spirit of God to mold us into the image of His Son. Just as the plunger beating the cream separates butter curds from the milk, God allows trials and suffering into our lives to separate us from sinful habits and to increase our faith.
God has a plan for us, and suffering breaks our dependence on ourselves and draws us closer to Him. We rejoice in suffering, knowing Christ in His suffering is worthy of our identification with Him. It took time to form the butter, and it takes dedication and continual surrender for God to complete His work in us. God creates a new heart in us and transforms our minds as we study His Word, serve Him, and listen to the Holy Spirit's guidance. When God completes shaping our lives, He puts us into His divine mold. We are pressed into the perfect likeness of Christ and marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit to live eternally in heaven with Him.
Think of ways you see God molding you into the image of His Son.
Krystal Weeks loves living in her home state of North Carolina. She enjoys spending time with her daughter and grandson. She has written in newsletters and Christian newspapers about her experiences in evangelism abroad on several mission trips and in America. Locally, being a friend family to international students has led to friendships with people from all over the world. She also serves in her church ministries and missions and has taught Bible lessons and ESL. She has written articles and poetry for Refresh Magazine and Lighthouse Bible Studies. Two of her articles appear in The Power to Make a Difference.