Friday, March 29, 2024

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“Every morning you’ll hear me at it again. Every morning I lay out the pieces of my life on your altar and watch for fire to descend.” Psalm 5:3 (MSG)

“All these pieces, broken and scattered, in mercy gathered, mended and whole...” – from the song, Broken Vessels by Hillsong Worship

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at Instagram or Facebook and thought certain people’s lives were perfect. Not that they’re always intending to seem that way, it’s just that I’m looking at a snapshot of a moment in their lives. A “highlight reel” so to speak. It’s really easy to see those moments and assume that they have everything perfectly figured out and think you’re a failure because your life in comparison looks completely different. Oftentimes it can look like it is in pieces. I know mine does!

But according to this Scripture, those pieces are the best thing we can bring to Him. That way, He can breathe His fire on them and make a whole new thing. For example, if you’ve got a broken piece of jewelry, it’s still gold. It’s still a precious metal. Damage doesn’t mean it’s any less valuable, it just means it’s less valuable to YOU. It still holds value simply because of what it is made of. And if you take that broken piece of jewelry to a jeweler he or she can melt it down and make a brand new, beautiful piece out of it. Most likely something even more valuable than what it started out as. The same holds true with our lives; maybe we’re a little bent and broken, maybe we’ve seen some major wear and use, maybe we’ve been severely hurt by others. But wear doesn’t make us not valuable and brokenness doesn’t mean we can’t be made whole again. When we lay our lives out on The Jeweler’s table it gives Him full permission to make us into something even more beautiful than we could ever imagine.

I am reminded of the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken ceramic items are repaired with gold. What starts out as a plain ceramic bowl or dish, once broken and then repaired, becomes a beautiful piece of art that is a one-of-akind. No other dish in the cabinet looks like it, and it has become more valuable than it ever was before. When outsiders (and even ourselves at times) can only see something as broken, only The Jeweler or the one doing the repair can see the end result. Only He can see how beautiful we can be if we simply submit to His fire and His Hands. He knows how priceless you are. If he didn’t value us, He wouldn’t have given us everything by giving His Son for us.

- Jessica Spencer

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