Broken Beauty
Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. (1 Samuel 12:20 NIV)
Grace reaches as deeply as we've fallen. It may be a father who regrets ruining his home with uncontrolled anger, a promiscuous teenager saddened by an unwanted pregnancy or the pain of abortion, or a homeless person who destroyed his life with drugs and alcohol. In each case lives have been damaged seemingly beyond repair. The consequences of these choices will never be completely eliminated.
And yet grace remains. Like repentant Israel, who realized too late the foolishness of demanding a king, God counsels us who must live with the fallout of our sin to not lose heart over what might have been but to strive for what might still be. We can't take back the words that were said, the money that was spent, or the years that were wasted, but we can begin today to "fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully with all [our] heart" (v. 24).
Our own sinful hands may have broken us, but God's hands can put us back together-perhaps not exactly as we could have been, but beautiful trophies of grace all the same.
Prayer: Take the broken shards of my life and create a vessel that honors you.
Used with permission.