Pens

I have a confession to make.

I absolutely love pens.

Yes, I love pens. 

From the time I was in middle school carrying my life in my backpack, I have reserved the front pocket for my love of pens. Nowadays my stash of pens is contained in my specific pen pouch within the main compartment of my backpack. My pens vary in color, tips, and styles. Today I have 3 very distinctive pens out on my desk (along with two different color highlighters) and each one has been used for a different task.  Some days I can use the same pen for all the tasks that are before me but then there are days that one pen just doesn't fit or feel right.  Pens glide across the paper in unique ways, at times a gel pen leaves a smudge while a thick felt pen bleeds onto the backside of that in which you are working and at times my .38 tips are just a bit too narrow for others to read with ease.  

I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, nor am I proficient in hand-lettering beautiful works of art but I am a person who loves the feel of just the right pen moving effortlessly across the paper.    I love looking over the pages of the written word to see the movement and arch of each letter knowing that the letters have become words; words that will hopefully reach into the unspoken part of someone else's soul, or capture the very intimate feelings swirling within the well of my own being. 

Each of us is a pen that God has handpicked, placed in a prominent place so that we might be carried in God's presence in all places and in all circumstances.  We are varied in the ways that we add life, color, and texture to the world in which we have been placed.  We are not all going to be used in the same way because we are not designed for all tasks and situations.  We are carried together in the very heartbeat of God creating a beautiful collection.  We each add a little different flair to the world.

Instead of limiting ourselves to one type of pen, let us choose to gather a variety of pens to create a colorful, well-rounded collection.  I want to be a collector of people; to gather others into my life that are of varying socioeconomic backgrounds, theological understandings, sexual orientation, sexual identity and, mental compacity to create a beautiful collection of individuals that create. How about you, who do you seek to gather into your circle to carry with you?