Pop!

My daughters and I canned seven pints of dill pickles yesterday. I had finally found some decent looking pickling cucumbers, and since my eldest daughter needed to complete her canning badge for her girls' club, I decided this was a perfect opportunity to show her the process.

We started a day ahead by placing sliced cucumbers into salted water. Twenty-four hours later, I prepared the jars, lids and seals while putting a large stock pot of water to boil. The girls removed the skins from the twelve garlic cloves we needed, measured out the vinegar and water and pickling spices, and set that to boil. Taking the sterile jars, they added a sprig of dill and a small chili pepper to each one. When the water in the stock pot started to boil, we started packing the jars with the now drained cucumbers. Then I poured the boiling pickling juice into the jars, while the girls put on the seals and lids.

The seven filled jars were then placed into the hot water bath for ten minutes. When the timer went off, I removed the jars and placed them on a towel to cool. As each jar cooled a POP! was heard, telling us that the jar was now sealed.

Six jars sealed easily. The seventh jar took quite a bit of time. I told the girls that we needed to hear that POP! in order to insure that the pickles would be preserved. If the seal didn't work, we would need to refrigerate that jar because it would eventually spoil otherwise. Despite all the work we did, it was the POP! that sealed the process.

What a great illustration of our relationship with God. We may think we are doing all the work to get us to heaven, but it isn't our work that gets us there. It is God who does the sealing. When we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, our lives automatically receive His stamp of approval.

Has your life been sealed by God? Stop working so hard on your own. Ask God into your heart and receive His perfect seal.