A friend told me tonight she imagines wrapping her "crud" in a giftwrapped box and lifting it up to God. I like that!
My similar prayerful visualization has been to use a beautiful bowl handcrafted and decorated by myself.
I write each item of concern on a piece of paper and add it to the bowl while saying goodbye to it.
I pour water in the bowl to purify the items.
I set the bowl over a fire until it boils and the steam lifts the dissolved remnants upwards towards God.
When the water boils away, what's left stays there and bakes until there is nothing but ashes left in the bottom of the bowl.
Eventually the fire goes out and the wind blows the ashes away.
Then I fill the bowl with flowers and lift it to God to bless.
Sometimes the flowers are fresh picked & sometimes they are potted in the bowl. It depends on whether I am simply turning away from these things while staying on course or heading in a new direction.
To be honest, sometimes I just fill the bowl with my problems and lift it over my head to God.
In the end it is the lifting to God that matters most!
I like the longer visualization when it is a more difficult or bigger issue in my life that I am lifting. It gives me time to focus on identifying what I am passing on and to process the importance of completely giving things up to God. Besides making it a more impactful experience, it also helps me in accompanying prayer and meditation. Because I have tinnitus, it often times makes it very hard to have a peaceful mind causing the simplest thoughts to be harder to focus on.
With the longer version, I have time to listen to my heart through the noise.
Copyright 2023 Wanda Hope Carter
