As I was prayerfully considering a second piece for the upcoming exhibit,
Divine Design, the same thought kept running circles in my mind: God alone creates on a level of divinity......We are His precious designs, each of us! And every single one of us are broken.....beyond repair without Him! But then it started minimizing to broken beyond repair....broken beyond repair...broken beyond repair.
Then all of a sudden, it hit me; "NO we're NOT!" Yes, we are earthen vessels - pressed on all side but NOT crushed, as it states in 2 Corinthians. And YES, we do fall and when we fall we will get broken. However, the stone we fall upon will not fall upon us as to crush us. This is what Luke 20:18 states:
"Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken. If that stone falls on anyone, it will crush that person."
It is terribly hard, with all eyes focused on our missteps seemingly waiting to push us the rest of the way down, or trip us
while we're unstable. In those moments I can relate to the psalmist who wrote: But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling; my steps had almost slipped........in Psalms 73:2. But even if I do trip, I remember Isaiah 41:10:
Don't be afraid, because I am with you. Don't be intimidated; I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will support you with my victorious right hand.
And if God be for us who can take away our peace? What shadow is greater than His light? What arm is stronger or reaches deeper and farther than His? He also promised us that no one will snatch us from His mighty hand, and Christ promised that He did not loose one of us.
But mostly, as I was thanking God for all this I remembered Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4: 18,19 where Jesus quotes Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Almighty LORD is with me because the LORD has anointed me to deliver good news to humble people. He has sent me to heal those who are brokenhearted, to announce that captives will be set free and prisoners will be released.
Jesus was in the synagogue, in Nazareth, on the day of worship. He had returned to Galilee and we are told that the news about him spread throughout the surrounding country because the power of the Spirit was with him. He stood up to read the lesson and the attendant gave him the book of Isaiah. Opening it He read:
"The spirit of the Lord is with me. He has anointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin and the restoring of sight to the blind, to forgive those who have been shattered by sin, to announce the year of the Lord's favor."
Then Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. Everyone in the synagogue watch him closely.....As he said, "This passage came true today when you heard me read it!"
It was then that I was so very mindful of the fortitude Christ died to grant us. I thought about how a mere mortal, without the empowerment of God's holy spirit would have been crushed under that type of pressure.
I thank God for His magnificent omnipresence, mercy and grace, enabling me to see something so divine it is quiet out of this world: Jesus! the author and perfecter of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
So, YES....I might
trip, I might fall, I might even get some chips, cracks and fractures, BUT God, through Christ has placed His spirit within me to bind up all that each and every time. This is the hope that I have which takes me FAR beyond any despair into His presence which repairs all things and makes them new again!
Etch that on your heart, today my friends!
Kisses,
Candace
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Broken....Beyond Despair
Watercolor
By Candace Huffmaster |
©Candace Huffmaster 2012, All Copyrights Reserved
Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc™
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