Beauty

I recently decided to read through the Bible again chronologically. This is one of my favorite ways to read the Bible all the way through - gee... wonder why?

Anyway, I'm in Job again, which I love. Job is one of my favorite books. It's so depressing on the surface, but it also has so many fantastic descriptions of God. For example:

"Behold, blessed is the one whom God reproves;
therefore despise not the discipline of the Almighty.
For he wounds, but he binds up;
he shatters, but his hands heal."

That's Job 5:17-18. These verses describe many of my encounters with God. There have been so many wounds that I didn't understand, and yet amazing things came from the experience.

And I've been shattered. Completely. Pieces of me were flung across the world like brittle stars strewn through the heavens, my soul ripping into tiny bits, like I was creating a horcrux, hiding it away so that nothing could ever hurt me...


Even then, I could feel God's fingers picking up each piece and fitting my soul and my heart back together. It wasn't the same as what I had created for myself - there were pieces that no longer fit, and sometimes, the shards would continue to cut. There are chipped edges and cracks revealing ugly scars, and maybe even a few seeping wounds still, but I'm not the one putting the pieces together anymore.

And if God is the One healing you, how can you be anything but beautiful?




I guess this went beyond a mere Scripture lesson...