Last week, I decided to use my free time going to a book sale. It has been a long while since the last time I had indulge myself with books. As I looked around, the smell of the books enticed me to flip some of those pages near me. I picked up one book. Then, another. There were so many books that I wanted to hoard, but I was mindful of the budget that I set prior to entering the store. I was about to pay for those books that I picked, but a small, white book seemingly peeping out of the tens of books captured my eye. Dirt and dust covered this little one. It had some scratches, though unnoticeable. It looked very old because of the dirt covering it. I grabbed and opened it though. To my surprise, it was a vintage KJV Bible. Its side is golden. Because it’s a white Bible, those scratches and dirt magnified. Someone who won’t open and look the inside wouldn’t want to buy it for sure. But I was curious. On my mind, “what if I would clean this out?” Will it look like a new one? I imagined cleaning it with wet wipes or cotton with alcohol. So, I dropped one book that I was supposed to buy in exchange of this little Bible.
When I arrived home, I excitedly took tissue paper, alcohol, and wet wipes. I tried cleaning the cover slowly making sure that those dust and dirt would be all wiped out. After a while of scrubbing it, this little book turned like a treasure. It became beautiful. It did not look old and grubby anymore. It was completely different.
This old, dirty, and scratched Bible became like a new one (check the picture below). This reminds me of my life. Our lives in the Lord. We are once dirty, messy, and broken people, but God changed us into a new work of art. In Isaiah 63:1, the Scripture says, “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”
God took our filthy lives and made it a masterpiece. We were once lost and broken people, but he turned that ugliness into beauty. The Bible speaks about ashes as a sign of mourning, grief, and even shame. I wanted to redeem that old book. In the same way, God redeemed us and the once messy life we live in expired. We became a new creation in God (2 Corinthians 5:17). How wonderful that is!
1. Salvation. Our life has changed when we were born again. And that’s the first step of God transforming our ashes into beauty. Our ashes of shame because of sin (2 Corinthians 5:17) was covered by the blood of Jesus. We became adopted children of God. We started living a life conforming to the family that God has established.
2. Old Life. Out of dust and dirt, God made us. Out of dust and dirt of life, (our baggages, pain, and heartache in life), God must break us into pieces, so He can mold us again into a beautiful piece of art. Our identity is no longer who we are but Him (1 Peter 2:9).
- Do you think your life is too messy for God to restore?
- Do you go through brokenness in life today?
- Is your life in the past characterized by pain and hurtful experiences that you think God is not able to erase?
- Do you think your sin is too much that you are ashamed of God?
- Do you think that your sin is a barrier for you to cry unto God?
Beloved, God is in the business of changing life. No matter how broken you are, in God’s eyes, you will become a new creature. We can never be beyond His reach. I always say, brokenness and shame in the world is ugly. Unacceptable. They are signs of defeat. But His Word tells otherwise. Isn’t it that the Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves him who has a contrite heart? (Psalm 34:18)
3. Walk in the newness of life. Now that we are a new masterpiece of God, we must walk in the newness of life. Our old self does not have any dominion over us. We now have the new spirit that God has put in our lives. There might be times when Satan tempts us to believe that we are still ugly in the sight of men, but His Word reminds us that those times of temptations to dwell on what had happened in the past, His Word is available for us to cling onto.
- Romans 12: 2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
- 1 Corinthians 6:18-19 “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
- 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
God wants to transform our lives in a way unimaginable to our finite mind. Like that Bible, when God make us new, we will become more usable in His kingdom. But God can never create a new piece of art in us, unless we are willing to be broken into pieces. And, by that, we must be willing to experience pain and heartaches. Whenever we see a beautiful piece of art, we wonder. We become amazed. Yet, we never look behind how this piece of art is made. No beautiful thing is made in an easy way.
When you pray to God to mold you into a beautiful craft, make sure to understand that it will not be simple. But look forward to that art that you want for your life, so you will trust that God is able!
Finding God in the Midst of Everything 
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