Under The Bell Jar

Under the Bell Jar

“I feel like I am under glass,” I told a wise and trusted friend, “and the rest of the world is on the outside.” He responded to my analogy with a question: “Are you there to be quarantined—or nurtured?” Maybe my prison was really a kind of greenhouse. I hadn’t thought of that.

The French developed the garden cloche, or bell jar, to nurture young seedlings in hostile weather environments. The cloche protected the plant from cold and frost and—with the sun’s light—hastened it to maturity. Under the bell jar, it could grow unimpeded.

I’m no fragile seedling. But I am still growing—daily—into the image of the one who designed me for his garden. And if he sees that I need some nurturing protection of his design, who am I to resent the glass?

It feels a little lonely here, but I am not alone. It’s a bit warm and confining, but it’s beginning to feel more like a hothouse than a holding cell. And you’d be surprised by the light that finds its way inside. Every day I notice some well-placed reminder that God knows my whereabouts. Like the friend who offered to help me with the flowers for a niece’s wedding about the time I was wondering how I might manage four hand-tied bouquets with only two hands to do the tying. Or the busy mom friend who offered me the only three free hours in her crazy schedule to teach me to make homemade rolls and filled the waiting time between steps with mugs of warm coffee and good conversation. I must not be invisible after all.

Do you feel as if you’re under glass? Could it be that instead of your prison, it’s a tiny garden paradise filled with the light and love God knows you need to grow? My life begins to change when I cease to deny or simplify its challenges, choosing instead to receive what the Father gives—trusting him to make from my trials something God honoring, pleasing to him, and good for me as well.

There are far, far worse places to be than under the bell jar.

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

Psalm 103:1-2, KJV