A clean heart create for me, God; renew within me a steadfast spirit.
Psalm 51:12
In the middle of the thrift store is a table. It’s a sturdy table, a solid table, with plenty of life left. But it’s an ugly table. You can see by the chips in the paint that it’s been at least 3 different colors in it’s lifetime. Some children have left their mark on it with permanent ink and others have carved an important number on the top when they could not find a pen. It’s pretty beat up but you see it’s potential and you bring it home. As you strip the paint layer by layer, the marks begin to disappear and the carvings become less visible. You discover that you have not acquired a piece of junk, you have acquired a treasure - a solid oak table with a beauty you never imagined.
Sometimes we feel like the table in the store - chipped and carved, our beauty long gone. We may feel permanently marked by our past, covered with layers of emotions and experiences and we wonder if we even know our true selves anymore. There is One who knows the beauty that lies beneath and is more than willing to bring us to our created state, that One is God. As we develop or strengthen our relationship with our Creator, we will begin to appreciate the gifts we've been given that don't always seem apparent. We will find the courage to change those parts of us that cause us, and those we love, marks. We will be able to live in the assurance that at our core - we are beautiful and holy and that NOTHING can change that. We will discover that we are indeed one of God's treasures and we possess a beauty we've never imagined. Today, let us seek God with a desire to be restored and renewed, living as the person we have been created to be.
Prayer: Loving God, you have created us in your image - holy and wonderful. Sometimes we feel that life has changed us so that our holiness no longer exists. Help us to peel back the paint layer by layer, so that with you, we may be renewed and restored to our created state as a child of God, loved, holy and beautiful.
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