Look for the Lovely
It can be very difficult sometimes to look for the good ... for the lovely thing ... in people and in situations. When we’re hurt or sick or broken or misunderstood, often our minds and hearts go on the defensive and wonder why ... why me ... why this ... why now?
As I was driving out of town this morning to go for some routine bloodwork, I was struck by the beauty of some of the buildings along the way. Some were still under construction, others were all finished, and a few had been remodeled with the old structures now replaced or covered by new updates. And a few more were older and needed some repair ... but they still had a unique beauty about them. As I thought about the process of creating or recreating those homes, I started thinking about the process of the recreation of the human heart … “from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh”. And also about the need to look for the beauty or loveliness in someone when it is not very obvious, but is hidden by an attitude or personality that may be offensive in some way. There can be beauty in things and situations and people that may not be obvious until we look more closely and deeply.
We all have challenges in our lives, and those things can cause our hearts to turn sour and bitter if we let them. And we can blame God. Some shake their fists at Him and become even more entrenched in their hatred of God and denial that He is a good and loving Father.
As we grow in our relationship with our heavenly Father and learn more about Him from both His love letter to us and His Spirit living within us, we begin to understand why God allows the challenges and difficulties we face in our lives. And we begin to see that, as the master sculptor of our lives, He is chiseling away at the things that need to be removed so that we will be more like Jesus. The tools in His hands are those things that may cause pain and uncertainty. So rather than seeing just the sickness that takes away a certain quality of life, or some other kind of hardship that brings pain or some kind of significant challenge, we must go deeper and look for the goal of God’s good plan ... that He is shaping you and me into His beautifully chiseled children who are being conformed to the image of His son, Jesus Christ.
“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 NIV
© 2023 Connie Caston McMaster All rights reserved
Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash