Which would you rather? Option A. Watch someone build something awesome from scratch. or Option B. Watch someone take something awful or out of place and transform it into a thing of beauty. There seem to be countless tv shows with this concept. Taking run down homes and redesigning them. Making a cohesive and hopefully delicious meal out of food ingredients that don't belong together. Digging through other people's "junk" to find hidden gems that are worth more than most people would realize. We love shows like this and items that remind us of this concept. Those dings and dents on your antique store find give it "character". Scuffs and scrapes don't matter, they might even make a piece more appealing. We even distress things on purpose! (No judgement here! I have done it before and will certainly do so again!) Furniture, picture frames, you name it we can chalk paint it and sand it in a perfectly imperfect pattern. We want reclaimed wood for our home decor projects. The more weather worn it looks the better. Broken things become better than new. Things that have been discarded and forgotten are rejoiced over as we delight in seeing what new purpose we can give them.
Why is it then that we want our lives to be pristine? Flawless? We don't want dents or scratches. We want that perfectly polished look. When it comes to our lives, the ups and downs mar our smooth surface. They leave us with bumps and bruises. We are damaged along the way. When did that become such a bad thing? A sign of weakness. It should be a sign of strength. A sign that we were knocked down, but we got up and kept moving forward. A sign that we love deeply and grieve deeply. These are things of beauty, not liabilities. Scars tend to be thought of as ugly reminders of pain. Could we look at them and see character instead? Could we see God delighting in our forgotten and discarded mess of broken hearts and broken lives as He gives us new purpose?
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19
Sometimes you find yourself in a wilderness. You might have wandered off, or maybe God led you there. Sometimes God will lead you out again, but other times you stay in the wilderness and watch Him transform it.
I might be biased but I think when God takes the shattered pieces of our lives and works a masterpiece it ends up being one million times more beautiful than it could have ever hoped to be in its original form. Then our scars serve to remind us of His unwavering grace, faithfulness and hope. And for that reason I hope they never completely fade. 💗
