Tears began to form in her eyes as she handed the pop-bead necklace to her father. No one could have imagined what he was going to do next. He took the necklace and then shockingly, threw it into the fireplace. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks as they sat and watched her lovely pile of plastic melt from the heat of the fire. The lives we build apart from God are nothing more than the equivalence of a simple pop-bead necklace. We are proud of our achievements and what we think is the best that we can do for ourselves. If we are willing to have faith and love God enough to trust him with the things that we cannot see, he will replace our plastic lives with so much more than we can ever imagine or obtain under our own power.