Finding Kisses From Heaven- Day 9

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28

God does not waste out hurts!

Someone said this to me last night and I stewed on it all evening. The thought of God being a recycler, a penny pincher of every part of my life, including the sad, awful and painful parts is very interesting to me. I know that God made me just the way I am, with all my perceived faults and flaws. I know that He doesn’t make mistakes and that He knows what He is doing. So when bad things happen can I sit back and be Ok, knowing that God knows what He is doing? Can I be happy, assured that He won’t waste any opportunities to bring His love into my life?

I have sat and complained the normal complaints of  “Why me,” to my Lord. I’ve been so bold as to tell Him that He better make lemonade out of these lemons in front of me and quick. I have felt in many ways a lost Israelite wandering in the desert, not knowing where I am going and wondering how much longer till I reach the “promised land.”

Aren’t we all this way? Aren’t we all roaming around wondering when the good things will be heaped upon us? When will I be happy? When will I be successful? When will I find love?

I know that God is not taunting me with a cookie over my head. He does not smile knowing that He is withholding something from me that I want so desperately. Instead, He is saying let’s make cookies and eat some cookie dough (not worried about the raw eggs) while we are waiting. He has blessing for me during my waiting periods.

The Japanese have a form of art that takes broken ceramic and glues them back together again with gold seams. This reforms their brokenness into beauty. They do not disguise the cracks, but highlight them in shimmering gold. These reformed ceramic works of art represent a pricelessness that is acquired by overcoming suffering.

They believe that with maturity and the struggles of life that we become the masterpieces that we were intended to be.

I’ve had many broken dishes that I have thrown away. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t have gold laying around to mend things. In America, if you break something you throw it away and go buy something new. This is so far from the way the Lord deals with our lives. He actually waits for us to be broken so that He can use us.

1 Corinthians 1:27 says that He chooses the weak and broken, “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that “He makes everything beautiful in His time.” I am sure that the word everything includes me.

God has plenty of gold to mend my brokenness. Doesn’t it say that the roads of Heaven are paved in gold? He waits for me to give Him my broken pieces so that He can use them, and in the process make me beautiful.

God will not let my hurts be wasted. He will not toss me aside. He is in the process of making you and me to be His masterpieces.

Today’s blessing- I have broken pieces that I am handing to the Lord. I wait excitedly to see what He will make of them.

Meghan