Oysters and Irritants!

In his heart, a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. Proverbs 16:9

If there’s one thing most of us living in this world today know, it’s that this world and society in which we live does not devote itself to making us happy. Our world and society also could care less about the big or little things that irritate us and make life hard for us. Whether it be politics, the economy, social injustice, certain people, or just life, much of the time things don’t turn out like we had planned

It is only when we accept the fact that irritations and inconveniences are going to happen that we we get over them and begin to move forward. On our way home from Florida last week, a car was stopped on the side of the interstate. Usually we see irritated people walking around said car ranting and raving about the inconvenience. However, in this case, the woman driver had put on the flashers, taken out her chair, a book, probably a drink, and was patiently sitting there a distance away from the car reading while waiting for help to arrive. Probably not the day she had planned, but she chose to take the irritation in stride.

Our family was mostly born and raised somewhere around the southwest Georgia town of Donalsonville. The roots grow deep for most of our relatives, and there were many things about our hometown which they all loved. One of those things was being situated close enough to Florida to be able to enjoy different kinds of seafood. My Daddy loved a lot of seafood, but he especially loved oysters. He loved them so much that many times he would greet me and my date at the garage door around 11 pm and insist that we sit at the kitchen table and have some with him. The guys politely opted out on the whole experience. Oysters were bad enough, but later he changed to sardines to entice them in. It was one of those irritating times. It is interesting; however, that Randy was the only one who would share oysters with him!

We had a great oyster bar in our small town where on any day or evening, except Sunday, you could grab a bar stool and watch Mr. Woody shuck fresh oysters and serve them to his customers. If my Daddy wasn’t eating fresh oysters on the halfshell there, he would grab a pint of them and bring them home! Although I was routinely treated to his method of eating them which was, put them on a saltine cracker, dress them up with hot sauce, and eat the whole thing, I never could get one down. I did, however, learn a lot about them watching Mr. Woody at work.

Oysters are pretty interesting creatures. They live in the ocean in oyster beds, and they have been around for approximately 15 million years according to Google. They actually have gills, breathe like fish, and they can live aa long time, some up to 50-100 years. Their shells are beautiful, but the great thing about oysters is that they produce pearls. They don’t do that on purpose, but rather as a defense mecanism against any irritant, such as a parasite, which enters their shell. When a grain of sand gets into its shell and irritates it, the oyster wraps it in layers of beauty until a pearl is formed.

This all has a moral in that, isn’t it amazing what an oyster can do with a grain of sand? These creaturs take something irritating and turn it into something of great beauty and worth. Think of all the good we could do if we learned to take all those irritating things in life and turned them into something beautiful.

Instead of focusing on all the irritants in life and why life works as it does, why not focus on how to live our best life? What good is regret, resentment, and all the irritants in life if it keeps us from enjoying the time we have? What good is more time if we’re just wasting the life we have focusing on irritant? God is at work no matter what irritant the day brings! He’s working for our good and HIs glory. Just trust HIm!

The lyrics of Bill Gaither’s song Something Beautiful says it best. Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion, He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, But He made something beautiful of my life.