Salt Pig; This Way or That
Many, many years ago I bought this Blue Glazed Terracota Salt Pig
From a Roadside potter in Claire SA
There were dozens of them in different sizes, colours
Lined up in rows upon a shelf
Many times I have
Used it, washed it,
Refreshed the salt
It stands in my cluttered kitchen
Working reasonably well
Though when the level drops
The salt is out of reach
And my hand gets stuck reaching for it
I see them everywhere
In shops for the home cook
I had wondered about the name
Why Salt Pig?
Was it when cooking pork
The salt brings up the crackling?
A few weeks ago after washing it
I was interrupted
I put it down not so carefully
It rolled over settling amongst the tea towels
When I returned, suddenly I could see what I had not seen before
On its side now
The little nubby handle at the top became the piggy nose
The rounded belly held the salt!
Oddly enough it works better this way!
I’m probably telling you something you already know,
But I’d never seen it this way!
It wasn’t ‘sold’ to me that way either
And this is how God teaches me…
Through ordinary everyday things
Seen in a slightly different way
My Salt Pig leaves me pondering
Why had I passively accepted
The way it was sold to me
What else do I accept in the same way?
Of course, we are not talking about Salt Pigs now!
We are talking about so many things
Beliefs, Ideology, Boundaries…
Self Talk, Identity, Self Image
What have we readily accepted
Because it’s been ‘sold’ to us that way?
What have we been told
That we’ve repeated as Truth
Without really knowing?
Without challenging what do I believe?
Without waiting on God
So through His
His Word
His Grace
His Mercy
His Love
His unconditional Love
So He can show another way of seeing things
Is it time
To start these conversations with God
Listening
Watching
Waiting for
His responses
His quickening
Within You
Words and pictures © Denise Stanford-Buller 2018
From the Archives: The Salt 
Within the Vine 
Greetings Denise,
It was such a pleasure meeting you today, and I thoroughly enjoyed our brief chat. Your insights written above using the salt pig as an analogy about ‘what to we readily accept’ all the time is so true, and a question that I’m finding myself more often now asking myself. I want to be more attuned to The Holy Sprirt and what He has to say. I’m so glad we can rest in the promise, that He will lead and guide us into all truth. I love that God uses the ordinary everyday things around us, to teach us fundamental truths.
Cheers,
Sarah
It was a huge joy to meet you Sarah I look forward to getting to know you more. As Mighty and Glorious as God is He teaches us through the smallest things, His Holy Spirit prompts amaze me… when I take notice that is. I am guilty of being far too busy far too often x Sometimes I’ll take a photograph of a flower but only when I enlarge it on the computer, do I see the tiny spider hiding within! Blessings x