A tiny spark

Ruf finished The Chosen last week. He loved it. You have no idea how happy that made me! He even had me pull out my beat-up, marked-up copy so he could find his favorite quote to read to me.

"A man is born into this world with only a tiny spark of goodness in him. The spark is God, it is the soul; the rest is ugliness and evil, a shell. The spark must be guarded like a treasure, it must be nurtured, it must be fanned into flame. It must learn to seek out other sparks, it must dominate the shell. Anything can be a shell, Reuven. Anything. Indifference, laziness, brutality, and genius. Yes, even a great mind can be a shell and choke the spark." (Reb Saunders to Reuven Malter in The Chosen)

What an amazing thought. Truly, that spark within us must be treated and guarded as treasure, nurtured until it becomes a blazing fire. We have the ability to know God, to spend time with him, and to develop a more godly character as we go through life if we only will let him be an important part of our lives. But we can also choke him out. To do so would be to take away the best part of ourselves, the only thing that can make us great, and the only thing that makes us good.

May I never forget to fan the flames.