From Broken To Beautiful

                                           

While on a ministry trip to Myrtle Beach, our group visited Jesus Shells (be sure to check out her FB page! (https://www.facebook.com/misskarentheshelllady)Karen, the woman who started this shell ministry, decorates shells that she and others find to spread the love of Jesus, and teaches classes where people can create their own shells, decorating them in ways that are meaningful to them. Some of the shells she uses are perfect and lovely. Others are broken or somehow “damaged.”

Our group decided to attend one of Karen’s decoupage classes. She led us in decorating a “practice” shell, then we picked the shells we would use for our projects. My friend chose the whelk shell in the pictures below for hers. She had a particular plan in mind to create something for her mom that would represent their family. As you can see, the shell she chose was broken and imperfect – one that, if we were collecting shells on the beach, we might disregard. But this shell was absolutely perfect for the creation my friend had in mind. This broken shell, likely tossed around a bit in the waves and washed up onto the shore where most of us would likely have left it, became a beautiful work of art – one that was meaningful not only to my friend who created it, but also to those of us in the group and especially to the person for whom it was intended.

Sometimes we are like that shell. We feel battered and beaten by life, perhaps even believing that lie that we are too broken to be of any good. But God, our creator, sees the beauty in each of us. He redeems what appears to be broken and creates something beautiful. We are not discarded or discounted because of the hard things we’ve been through, mistakes we’ve made, or the ways that the enemy has tried to destroy us. The Bible says that God delights in us – He SINGS over us. He has carved our names into the palms of His hands, and He collects our tears in His bottle. Jesus came to redeem us and restore us to relationship with God the Father. And when we have been redeemed and He creates "beauty from ashes," what we perceived as ugly and broken, what the enemy has told us makes us worthless, becomes a beautiful gift. It's a gift that pleases our Father, is meaningful in the Kingdom, and is just perfect for God to work through to make a difference for the Kingdom in the lives of others.

So if ever you feel like you are too broken to be useful for the Kingdom, if a time comes that you feel that you are worthless or that the redemption story doesn’t fully pertain to you because you’re simply too broken, remember this shell story. Ask God to show you what He sees in you and what He says about you and BELIEVE what He reveals to you.

#beautyfromashes #Godisgood #redeemed #purpose #Faithjourney