today i was researching wisteria. it is a beautiful vine that makes you want to draw nearer and linger in its sweet fragrance. Its long drooping clusters of lavender flowers are reminiscent of a dream or romantic movie. it is a beautiful, wonderful, living, moving gem.
it is beautiful as it takes over trees and fence. it is beautiful as it weighs down roofs and arbors. it is beautiful as it takes over whole gardens, sucking the life out of and destroying all living things in its path. beautifully destructive... until all that is left is a whimsical mess of flowers and fragrance.
so similar is our pain i think.
it weighs us down and causes us to crumble as it takes over our lives and breaks us down. it consumes us and tears our walls down. the places where those walls no longer are leave us weak and in pain, but sensitive to the Lord... if we let them.
those spots that are vulnerable and laid bare, those are the places that God moves and works. those areas are what God uses to form our heart and our spirit into the beautiful creation that He made us to be.
He takes brokenness and out of it grows beauty. He takes destruction and out of it grows devotion. He takes hurt and out of it grows hunger for Him. He takes grieving and out of it grows grace. He takes pain and out of it grows peace.
He takes our bitter, messed up, crushed, mangled selves and He completely - without hesitancy - covers us with the blanket of grace and mercy that is Jesus Christ.
the vine of pain that we see as gruesome has bloomed in all its fullness with the love of Jesus.
The fragrance of our life, a life devoted to Him... that fragrance causes God look upon us and smile.
God smiles! a hearty, jolly smile when he looks at His surrendered children. His whole face lights up with joy when we submit to Him, when we are in love with Him.
"...the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." (Genesis 2:7)
You make beautiful things out of the dust.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time..." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
~ written 06/19/2015 ~
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