Enter Marilynn’s doll studio and right away you see it’s bright, clean and orderly, with built-in cubbyholes, shelves, and drawers for doll and clothing parts. No chaos or confusion.
A few dozen beautiful dolls are displayed along one wall. Each with it’s own personality, dress, and story to tell.
On a workbench lie several dolls in various stages of construction. A few heads, some arms, a torso. Scraps of fabric. A bit of construction debris. If you’ve survived any home remodeling, you know how destructive things get before they improve. This little spot is like that.
That’s when you hear the praying
Urgent, wailing prayer.
The dolls on the workbench are convinced their future is hopeless and out of control. How can anything good ever come of this? Arms! Legs! Heads! Oh the humanity! They cry in prayer, desperate for relief from their predicament.
Marilynn enters, and the praying intensifies. You catch scattered phrases: “Oh no!…Please, Oh Lord, build a hedge of protection!…Rebuke the devil!…NOT THE SCISSORS!”
They don’t realize Marilynn is working to fulfill their deepest longings
And even their longings are created by her.
She treats every doll as a beloved individual. She has a personal plan for each, and prays over each one as she works and creates. Each finished doll is one-of-a-kind, with it’s own personality and mission. To Marilynn, every doll is like her own child.
The workbench dolls see only the present.
They see the gorgeous, unique dolls on display, but don’t make a connection between those dolls and themselves. They don’t realize that each of those dolls was also once in pieces without hope on the workbench.
If only they knew the love and mastery of their creator and designer
If only they knew the hope Marilynn holds in her heart for each one of them, and how nothing will stop her from pursuing that hope.
Well, some things might stop her, or slow her down: sometimes dolls roll off the workbench and hide to avoid the pain and uncertainty. Sometimes they try to resist and save themselves. They try to make Marilynn’s job more difficult; they hope she’ll get frustrated and give up.
Their hope is in relief, in escaping the process.
Their hope is not the same as her hope for their future:
See more of Marilynn’s creations HERE.
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