No matter how much we may want it to be possible, it is impossible to collect sand in a sieve.  We will likely collect, rocks, toys, and other objects that have been left in the sand, but the sand itself will continue to fall through the cracks.  Still, we see this futile attempt repeated over and over again by children playing in a sandbox.  We can see the thought process expressed on the child's face.  "Perhaps this time, the pieces of sand will be just large enough that they won't fall through the cracks.  Perhaps if I tilt the sieve just so, then the sand will stay put."  Yet, time and time again, the sand falls through the cracks.  We cannot collect sand in a sieve. 

Most adults would admit the truth with little hesitation, and yet we try to do the same thing with other aspects of our lives on a daily basis.  Some are as unimportant as the weekly cleaning of the house.  Eventually, the clean folded clothes, sparkling counter tops, and dust-free tables will fall through the cracks and the process will need to be repeated.  Others are more serious and complex such as repeating negative communication patterns with our spouses.  The words are collected, temporary resolution is reached, and then eventually the words return again to destroy as resolution falls through the cracks.  We continually buy things that we don't need hoping that the next purchase will create a lasting satisfaction, but the temporary high created from that purchase falls through the cracks.  So, we make another purchase hoping that this time the feeling will remain.  We cannot keep living our lives in this futile manner.  We need to stop trying to collect sand in a sieve.

I tend to live my life in an organized manner.  There is a place for everything, and everything is in its place.  My home, my classroom, my emotions all stay filed away in an organized fashion ready to be pulled out at the proper, controlled moment.  However, over the past year someone replaced my file cabinet with a sieve.  I keep trying to replace my emotions where they belong, but they continue to fall through the cracks.  A year ago, I would have laughed at the idea that I was trying to fill up a sieve with sand.  However, that is exactly what I have been doing and it has taken the good, bad, and the ugly of this past year for it to become something that I can see.

Perhaps, the sand needs to fall through the cracks so that I can deal with what is left over.  Rather than trying to change the size of the cracks, I need to look for the lesson in what remains and embrace it.  This is part of the beauty that is woven into brokenness.  In the past, lost jobs have caused me to rely more fully on my creator. In the present, broken families have helped me to see that my only security is my father in heaven.  In the future, my Father will provide everything that I need in order to fulfill the plans that He has for me.  I need for the sand to fall through the cracks.