Restoration

I am astonished, on a regular basis, when I reflect on the ways of God…when I look at my life and what He has brought me through, and I realize that God wastes nothing. Not one mistake, not one hurt, not one tear, not one painful circumstance slips through His grasp. Every step on this journey called Life He guides along a path that leads us back to Him. If we choose to make Him our goal, and if we finally and wholly surrender to Him, He will make every part of our lives, and every season, an opportunity to bring Himself glory.

Why?

Because that’s the point. That’s the main thing. That’s the goal of life: the glory of God. It’s what matters and it’s what counts and it’s what brings peace, justice, redemption, love, joy, salvation.

Too often we get caught up in ourselves, when we should really be overwhelmed by the beauty of God. We become grossly self-focused, believing that the most important thing is our happiness and comfort. Then, when things don’t turn out the way we planned, when life takes a sharp turn to the left while all this time we’ve been banking on an easy turn to the right, we find ourselves unable to cope with the trials at hand.

But God wastes nothing. He makes everything count. He takes what is broken, the things that are real messed up, when it’s our fault and when it isn’t, and He molds them back together. As if that weren’t already enough, to top it off He gives us back more than we lost. He reveals more beauty and more joy and more love then we ever thought capable. It’s hard for me to understand sometimes because in God’s Kingdom, 1+1 doesn’t always equal 2. But somehow, He makes it all add up, brings everything in a full circle. And somehow we always come out with more than we could ever ask or imagine, and He always deserves the glory.

Romans 8:28 really is true. It’s more than just a memory verse that your Sunday School teacher made you recite in 4th grade. It is Truth, the living and powerful words of God. It’s a display of His grace. GRACE……God takes the punishment for our screw-ups and lavishes us with treasures we didn’t earn. I don’t think there is anything more breathtaking than the depth of beauty that our God can bring from the despair of ashes.