Onions

I love onions.  When a recipe calls for onion I put twice as much in.  I love onions raw on hamburgers, hot dogs, and sandwiches.  My Dadadee loves onions even more.  He will eat them raw all by themselves.  I can't do that.  I have indigestion just thinking about it!  There is one thing I don't like about onions though.  The tears, the snot, and the pain.  Slicing an onion and it's fume production are no fun.  One time I heard someone say that if you don't remove the papery shell from the onion while slicing it will not make you cry.  Brilliant!!  The next onion I sliced I tried the new technique.  The slicing of the onion, indeed, did not produce the mucous response from eyes or nose as advertised.  No tears, no snot, no pain.  There was one problem though that was no mentioned in the new cutting technique.  What to do with the papery shell!  It was all in pieces within the usable onion.  I started picking it out piece by piece.  It was painfully tedious  and frustrating.  I decided then and there I would take the tears and pain over this any day.  I could have been done cooking by now!

It was then that God spoke to me.  Yes, while picking onion pieces.  It wasn't the burning bush or thundery voice kind of words.  It was the "knowing something all at once" kind of word.  Suddenly I knew that growing in God, and getting healing for our wounds was like chopping onions.  Sometimes we become aware of a weakness or hurt in our lives.  Depending on the person and the hurt, you can dive right in, remove that protective layer, experience the pain and the tears and get it done.  Then you can move on with the next part of the project (ie life).  But some hurts are so painful and powerful that they will take time.  Or maybe time is what has caused them to be such.  When God brings them before you, all the pieces are mixed in together, the good and the bad.  It takes time to pick through and get out the protective layer to reveal the tender usable part  Neither approach is good or bad.  It's just a way to deal with growth and pain.  Sometimes you may feel confident about an issue or a moment has presented itself for instant triumph.  Or you may spend an lifetime on one issue picking and picking away until finally, only in the presence of the King can it vanish completely.

If you don't like onions, to bad.  Onions are in everything.  Learn to like them, or at least grin and bear it when you are served!