On Paper Dolls

This is a paper doll.

And this is a paper doll with holes in it.

I never got into paper dolls when I was a kid. I do distinctly remember though in the Little House story books that Ma used to draw paper dolls for Mary and Laura, which would have been awesome but my mom didn’t do that and I will continue to remain unscarred from that fact.

All is still well. This will not become a complex.

Sometimes I can imagine that I feel like a paper doll must feel:

“Small child, do you think you could NOT crinkle my midsection? I am having a hard time breathing.” Or, “THAT’S IT!! If you ruffle my edges ONE MORE TIME I swear my clothes are going to fall off from agitation!! Or, “Don’t make me give you a paper cut!!”

CAN YOU IMAGINE?! If Disney came out with a movie called Revenge of the Paper Dolls…..

It’s the new Toy Story, I promise. It would have to have some lesson about how being two-dimensional and shallow won’t get you anywhere in life.

I can see it now.

Coming summer 2017.

A while ago I sat doing my devotions one afternoon. This was in the middle of a season of life where I really did feel like a paper doll. If anybody else even thought about being less than wonderful to me I literally thought I would fall apart. Talk about being totally drained, resigned even, to the point where I could say, “I have nothing left to give. They have taken it all.”

That afternoon I sat there and, while I don’t usually have music on during my devotions, I did this day. The old classic worship song, “Enough” sung by Jeremy Camp came on. Now I had known this song for like 8 years by this time, but it strangely hit me that day in a way it hadn’t previously.

The chorus goes something like this:

All of you is more than enough for all of me.

For every thirst and every need.

 You satisfy me with your love

And all I have in you is more than enough.

I thought about the very nature of God and how he is INFINITE.

As in all-encompassing, never ending, there is always more to him.

 Someone once said that even for all eternity in Heaven we will never stop learning about him because he IS eternity; He doesn’t end.

I compared that with myself; one who is so very FINITE. Every single thing about me.

I don’t go on for very long. You can get to the end of me pretty quickly.

I stopped there.

Is EVERY SINGLE THING about me finite? Like there is always an end?

What about all of my needs?

What about all my wounds?

What about all of my gaps?

Holes?

This is a picture of a paper doll. With holes in it. But I can count how many holes she has. And she has 19.

The Bible says that God is light. In him there is no darkness at all.

His light is infinite, his grace everlasting, all encompassing.

This is a picture of a paper doll with holes in it.

And this is a picture of a paper doll whom has had more light shined on her than she has holes.

Like, the light fills in the holes, and then there is still more light.

When I see this I am glad that sometimes I feel like a paper doll. Because even with all of my holes my need is still finite.

And there is more light in him than there are holes in me.

And he has more grace than I will ever have need for.

Isn’t that crazy?

He really is more than enough. There is more to him than there is need in us.