Tanya Ashworth/AZ, CO

The Pig Story

Biblical references are made to the fact that God is in us and that we are to be “in Christ.”

Well, just what in the world does it mean to be “in” somebody or somebody to be “in” us? How do you have Christ be “in” you?

I asked for wisdom on this one. Three days later I had a dream.

In the dream there was a bright pink papier-mâché piggy bank. The pink pig in the dream was actually the same papier-mâché pig that I had made for my niece. The piggy bank sits in the TV room waiting for our niece’s Saturday visits.

In the dream the pig was listening to some lively music and trying to dance. Its feet were going a mile a minute and then all four feet would squish out from under him unable to support him. The expression on the little pigs sad face was one of despair and disappointment as he was unable to stand and dance.

I felt sorry for the sad little pig. I had made the pig and now realized that it needed coat hanger wires in the legs to provide the strength that would enable it to dance. I had not done that because I thought he was just a stationary toy pig. I felt very sad about it. I put my hand under the little pigs belly and lifted him up. The music started in again and the pigs little legs gyrated in the air in all sorts of directions in time with the music as he lively danced and wiggled to the music.

When I awoke the first thing that came to mind was a “God thought” where God asked me, “Why had the pig come to life?” I replied, “Because you breathed life into the pig.” As I was saying the words I realized that I had emphasized the word “into". That Christ had come “into” the pig.

Then there was another “God thought” where God asked me, “What is the pig made of?” I replied, “Flour and water.” Then He asked me what I am made of. I replied, “Dirt and water.” His response was that we are one in the same. The stiff lifeless papier-mâché pig that sits on the end table is no different than me. The difference is that God breathed life into one (me) and not into the other (the pig.)

It then dawned on me that God IS in us. It is not something we have to figure out or something that we have to magically do. He is in us because we are alive. We are, however, in the middle of a process. We are being shaped into “new creatures in Christ.” The frustration and anxieties that we feel are becasue we are still incomplete. Like the pig we struggle to dance, to live, to feel complete but we can’t because God is transforming us and we are only partially complete. The frustrations we feel are real.

Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” I decided that I am no longer going to assume that some earthly fulfillment will take the anxiety and despair away because it won’t. We are in the middle of becoming who we really are and that is why we are frustrated. We can’t dance (yet.)