Down In The Salt Mines
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3-11
Written by Joyce Suttin Wednesday, 01 October 2014
We went down 378 spiraling steps into the Wieliczka Salt Mine in southern Poland, wondering what we would find and thinking about how easy it would be to get lost in the underground maze around us. I marveled at how anyone could spend so much of their life underground and retain their sanity.
As we passed through various chambers, we were shown sculptures in the salt. Hundreds of years ago, some anonymous miner in the depths of the earth saw the candlelight reflected in the salt and realized that it could be a wonderful medium for carving. Perhaps he dreamed of being an artist like Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo. Maybe he spent his lunch or after-work hours creating his own masterpiece, one that would never be on display in a sumptuous museum or sunlit cathedral. It would only serve to inspire other miners like himself. Perhaps he hoped that in the deep he could show them the way to God. Eventually, others began to carve as well.
Four hundred forty-three feet beneath the surface of the earth, the miners created a chapel. On the walls, they depicted the life of Jesus, from the nativity to the resurrection. Maybe they realized that they desperately needed God’s protection and care as they entered the forbidding darkness.
Who would have thought that light shining on salt would cause it to gleam like marble? Who could imagine that men who do such manual labor would have time and inspiration to create masterpieces? Our guide invited us to test the acoustics, reputed to be some of the best in the world, and told us how people still bring their children into the salt mines if they have asthma or allergies to benefit from the healing power of the salty air.
After an elevator ride back to the surface, I continued thinking about the salt mine. I’m not a sculptor, artist, or composer, but it’s important to me that I am able to create something through my writing. Whatever you do can become something that will inspire others.
Life is not all sunlight and blue skies. Even in the dark places, a tiny candle can lead us to find our purpose. The sweat and tears won’t last, but the beauty we create in the spaces of our lives can live on and enlighten someone else’s darkness.
Photo: Nightman1965 / Shutterstock
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Joyce Suttin is an educator, writer, and frequent contributor to Activated magazine. She lives in San Antonio Texas with her husband and has an on-line ministry excerpting, editing, and writing inspirational material.
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EVERY PERSON IS ON GOD'S MOST-WANTED LIST!
The Lord is so concerned about one soul! The Good Shepherd will follow him out into the hills, into the night and the storm to try to save him. God loves each of us as if there were only one of us. The Lord left the 99 in the fold and went out on the mountainside in the storm to find the lost sheep. He proved His love for even the stray sheep, even one and He's not going to lose one of His sheep.--Not one soul! He's going to save them all in the long run!
No price is too big to pay to save a soul! How can you judge the value of one immortal soul? God valued it so highly that He gave His Own Son to redeem it! To God, just one soul is worth it all, just to free one poor bound soul, one poor tormented spirit from the bondage of Satan.
Help us, Lord, to really long for them and seek for Your lost sheep as the Good Shepherd searches for the sheep that He loves.--As He longs and suffers and yearns and agonizes for it that He may find it and woo it and win it back into the fold. Give us more compassion, Lord, more love, more longing for Thy sheep! Help us, O Lord! May Thy love constrain us! In Jesus' name!--Amen!
Activated TFI