This last winter I was out in the woods snowshoeing with a friend after a significant snowfall. As we were breaking new trails through the deep fresh powder I marveled at the beauty of the forest freshly coated and outlined with glittering snow that had just fallen the night before. At one point we stopped and right in front of us was a large old locust tree. It was hanging every which way, covered in thorns, messy looking, and would have been cut down in a heartbeat if it were anywhere else but the middle of the woods. But in this case it was transformed into an amazing work of art. Dusted with the fresh shimmering powder, the transformed thorns and hanging branches sprawled wide and low to create a canopy that shined unlike any other tree around, when a few months earlier it would have been considered by far the most ugly trashy tree in the area.
This is exactly the way our lives are. Our heart, mind, and spirit can at best be like the locust tree on our own effort, but covered in the grace of God everything that was once considered weaknesses and shortcomings can be made into something spectacular.
But how?
2 Corinthians 12:9 “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
But how does this work?
Romans 4:17b “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”
If God would take the time to make a work of art out of a hideous locust tree in the middle of the woods where few will see it, how much more will he make every shortcoming and weakness of ours into strengths more magnificent than anything we could imagine when we take them to him and surrender them before him. If we do, it will be a magnificent display for all to see, that our lives would bring praise to God for what He has done.
Let us hold firmly to God’s truth for us….
No comments:
Post a Comment