Lord make me a bridge, let others walk on me – may I never be a block, though You gave me liberty.

free from the law, I’m a servant of grace – but a block prevents others from seeing Your face.

a bridge lays down, making a way for all – a block causes others to stumble and to fall.

may I never be a stumbling block by doing whatever I can – while my brother needs a bridge to walk according to Your plan.

In You, Lord, I have freedom to do so many things – help me choose to be a bridge, though I desire wings.

may I help my brothers more by laying down my liberty in this life – than by standing as a stumbling block, which can only lead to strife.

In my liberty let me choose what helps my brother not to loose – his faith, his way, nor cause him doubt – that’s not what liberty’s about.

this liberty Lord, You’ve given me, not just for me alone – may I use it only if it strengthens my brother on his long journey home.

so a stumbling block upon no man’s path, may I ever be – let me be the bridge lying down in the gap, making clear the way to Thee.

“Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. (Romans 14:13)

sincerely, Grace Day

Puzzling – verb or adjective? Well, normally an adjective but I now use it as a verb ever since I recently completed a partially finished puzzle left by my older daughter. I refer to the activity of working on a puzzle as puzzling, just as working on a quilt is called quilting. Makes sense, doesn’t it? An added bonus is the pun that the act of puzzling, or of putting a puzzle together is in and of itself a puzzling endeavor. So it is both the verb and the adjective simultaneously.

Maybe because I was enthused by my recent success in finishing the aforementioned puzzle, I have started a new puzzle all on my own. It is proving to be a slow, frustrating process at present. Trying to find connections for all these small, similar, yet subtly different pieces of the puzzle is a painfully tedious task which hasn’t appeared to yield much progress to date. So far, there is no pretty picture emerging. I see just a bunch of disconnected puzzle pieces covering the table, strewn randomly, even chaotically about and I wonder how anything like a coherent image could ever come from so many disconnected pieces. Then I remember – they are all pieces of the same puzzle. They were made to connect with each other. That is their purpose.

I confess – I can’t help but identify with these puzzle pieces. Like each of them, I know there is a place where I fit in, a place that is a perfect fit for me. But trying to find that place is no small feat. I want to find where I fit into this puzzle of life that is God’s big picture puzzle. (God sees the big picture – I can’t, I don’t have His vantage point – you know, from all eternity, in the beginning God created – that kind of vantage point) I know each piece has a part to play. Which means I can know that I have a part to play in completing the bigger picture that God is putting together. In order to find my place, I have to find other pieces to connect to, pieces which connect with me so that together we form the larger picture God is creating. So my search for where I fit in becomes a search for connection because in connection I will find my place. Apart from connection, in isolation, I won’t ever find my place or my purpose. Puzzle pieces don’t make sense by themselves. Neither do people. They are, as we are, parts of a larger whole. Only when completely connected on all sides do we, like the puzzle pieces, fulfill our purpose of allowing the larger picture to be revealed and finished for all to see.

As I puzzle over my unfinished puzzle, I also puzzle over life, which seems to consist of myriad pieces all waiting for me to connect them and in so doing discover the beautiful picture that is revealed when all the pieces find their proper place. If only life could be solved like a puzzle. But that would require being able to connect the dots, or in this case, the puzzle pieces. And as I know from my experience as a puzzler, that is often difficult to do. Sometimes it is a seemingly impossible task – this finding of connections between random pieces and random people. And yet when the connections are discovered and put into place, something wonderful takes place and a part of the bigger picture emerges. It is an excruciating if not an exciting process, this puzzling.

Still, I agree with the king in one of my all time favorite musicals, “The King and I”, that life often “is a puzzlement.” I can totally understand how the King felt when he sang these words,

“There are times I almost think I am not sure of what I absolutely know – very often find confusion, in conclusion, I concluded long ago . . . In my head are many facts of which I wish I was more certain, I was sure – Is a puzzlement. And it puzzle me to learn That tho’ a man may be in doubt of what he know – Very quickly he will fight – He’ll fight to prove that what he does not know is so. . . . Oh, sometimes I think that people going mad. Ah, sometimes I think that people not so bad . . . but is a puzzlement.”

Those words express so much, don’t they? And they raise a puzzling life question, namely how can we know anything for sure? And how can we be sure of what we know? What is the truth and how do we find it? In 2 Timothy 1:9-12 Paul writes these words during a difficult time for him and for the people living in the world at that time,

“This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.”

Imagine that. In this very puzzling world, unlike the King of Siam, who wasn’t sure about anything, Paul was sure about something. And the thing Paul was certain about was not an inconsequential thing either, such as being sure what his favorite food was or sure of directions to the next town. No Paul was sure of what he hoped for and certain of what he did not see. (Hebrews 11:1) Paul had faith. And his faith was in the person of Jesus Christ. Paul believed that Jesus was able to “guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.” What had Paul entrusted to Jesus? His life. Paul had given Jesus his life and Paul was convinced that Jesus would guard it until “that day”, which was the day of Jesus’s return.

Paul was in prison but he trusted that his story was still being written and that his place in the puzzle God was putting together was being lived out day by day as he looked to God to guide him. Paul knew God wasn’t finished with him or with the puzzle. He trusted God to put the puzzle together correctly and to put him in his proper, pre-appointed place in the puzzle when the time was right. Paul knew God was putting something together that was bigger than just himself. It’s like Peter said in 1 Peter 2:4-5,

“As you come to Him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

One stone does not a house make. It takes many stones in the hands of a builder to create a building. It takes many puzzle pieces in the hands of a puzzler to complete a finished puzzle. The stones have to trust the builder to put them where they belong. The puzzle pieces have to trust the puzzler to put them in the space created just for them. When I am puzzling over where I fit in, trying desperately to find that space made just for me, I can trust my Heavenly Father because He alone knows what the finished picture will be. I trust Him to lead me and to put me right where He wants me to be. I can trust God because He is the perfect puzzler. His puzzling always results in perfection. In fact I read in Romans 8:28,

“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.”

God is good. God works for the good in the lives of those who love Him. Of this truth, Paul was certain even while he lived in an uncertain world. You and I too, dear readers, live in a glaringly uncertain world at the moment. Yet we too, can say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.”

My Heavenly Father created all life, He gave me life, He sustains my life, He fills my life with His Presence, – He is the One who guards my life and leads me to the place in His puzzle that He has been preparing for me all along. He is preparing a place for you, too, dear readers. Even though life today is chaotic, confusing and uncertain, in the hands of the Master Puzzler it will all come out right.

As I experience all the events of this present time in history, I shake my head and say along with the King of Siam, “is a puzzlement.”

then I fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, and I say, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able, to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day. And I say along with Job,

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)

life – is a puzzlement – but I know and I trust the Maker and the Master of this puzzle that is life . . .

sincerely, Grace Day

Like faith, (in my previous post) love is an action verb. Love is celebrated and promoted as a feeling, but love’s proof is in its behavior, in its actions. We could even say (paraphrasing James) love without deeds is dead. Love without loving actions isn’t love at all. Jesus described love to His disciples in this way, saying,

“If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching.” and “Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me.” (John 14:23 & 21)

Love is not a noun but what exactly is it? 1 John 4:10 explains it this way,

“This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Sending His Son is definitely an action, a really big one. So big all of human history is divided into before Jesus came and after Jesus came to earth. Jesus came here and showed us God’s love for us by His actions such as healing the sick, feeding the hungry, washing the disciples feet and His ultimate act of love, hanging on a cross, paying the price of our sin so we could be reconciled to a Holy God. John 15:13 confirms this as the greatest act of love saying,

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” And that’s exactly what Jesus did. He laid down His life for you and for me.

“The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.” (John 10:17-18)

So love is the sending a Savior, the sacrificing of an only Son, the laying down of one’s life for another person or for many people. 1 Corinthians 13:7 tells me some important actions that love is always busy doing.

“It (love) always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

Protecting, trusting, hoping, persevering – love is a full time job for sure. I like how the Revised Standard translation expresses 1 Corinthians 13:7 in these words,

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Bearing, believing, hoping, enduring – love is definitely not a noun! Love is a word packed full of action! The Modern language translation of this same verse is even more descriptive of how love behaves saying,

“It (love) bears everything in silence, has unquenchable faith, hopes under all circumstances, endures without limit.”

Love, the feeling, would not be able to accomplish all the bearing, believing, hoping and enduring that love, the action verb, is called upon to do in order to accomplish love’s work in this world. Feelings are fleeting, changeable, unreliable companions at best, who can lead us easily away from where we were planning to go and away from the things love, as defined by its actions, is dictating that we do.

Jesus said the two greatest commandments were to love God first and foremost and to love others as ourselves. These were calls to action not calls for us to feel a certain way. Knowing this makes understanding Jesus’s words in Luke 6:27-31 easier.

“But I tell you who hear Me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

When Jesus told them to love their enemies, He also told them how to do it. Do good to them, bless them, pray for them, turn the other cheek, give to others and treat them well. Jesus was talking about our actions towards our enemies, not our feelings towards them. Here again, we see love identified by its actions. There are so many things that love does. But there is one thing love does not do. Romans 13:10 tells us,

“Love does no harm to its neighbor.”

That says it all, doesn’t it? This simple but profound truth would work wonders in our lives if we put it into practice. Don’t harm other people – with words or deeds because that’s not love. Love builds bridges not barriers. Love reaches out, seeking connection not division. The isolation imposed by COVID restrictions has made it easier for us to become divided from those around us, from those we used to share our days with, our lives with, until we couldn’t anymore. Hopefully, we will let love tear down the walls isolation has built and put pathways in their place – pathways that will connect us once again to each other in an ever expanding network of community. Love can’t be lived out in isolation. Other people are needed in order to put love into practice. There is something else that Romans 13:10 tells us, the second part of that verse reads,

“Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

The Living Bible says, “Love does no wrong to anyone. That’s why it fully satisfies all of God’s requirements. It is the only law you need.”

Could it be if we obeyed God’s law of love, (doing no harm) we would also be obeying all the other laws? This would seem to be the case. Love is and does many things – but these words from Romans 13:10 show me clearly how I can identify true love –

“Love does no harm . . .”

sincerely, Grace Day

Some might say that faith is a feeling but I think faith is a verb, an action verb. Faith is demonstrated by our actions. I show my faith by my actions. Hebrews 11:1-3 gives a definition of faith saying,

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

I was reminded of that “certain of what I do not see” aspect of faith as I walked yesterday under a gray cloudy sky. As I looked up, I noticed a small break in the clouds revealing a clear, bright blue patch of sky. It was only a tiny opening in the clouds but it bore witness to the fact that somewhere above the clouds, the sun was shining and the sky was a brilliant blue. The fact that I couldn’t see it, didn’t mean it didn’t exist. It was another “tree falling in the forest” moment. If I don’t see the sun rise because it’s raining or cloudy, does that mean the sun didn’t come up today? Or do I trust that the sun rose on schedule even though all I see before me is pouring rain?

Abraham was a man who showed his faith by his actions. By trusting and obeying God, Abraham demonstrated his faith. We read what happened in Genesis 12:1-4,

“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’ . . . So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him.”

No map, no itinerary, no reservations made – just leave your, well your everything and go to, well it’s an unknown to you but not to Me – so I will show you the way – is essentially what God said to Abraham. (who at that time was called Abram) And Abraham responded with trust, obedience and faith. He packed up and followed faithfully where God led him. Abraham was truly “walking by faith and not by sight” because he didn’t know his destination. Only God did. And Abraham trusted God. He followed in faith. We see this exchange between God and Abraham in Genesis 15:5-7,

“He (God) took him (Abraham) outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. He also said to him, ‘I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.’ ”

This promise of God to Abraham was pretty incredible considering that at the time Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were childless. Sarah was barren and Abraham who had been seventy-five years old when he started on this journey, wasn’t getting any younger. To be asked to believe that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars when he didn’t have even one child at the time, would have stretched anyone’s faith. And yet we read, “Abram believed the Lord.” He had faith and he showed that faith by continuing to follow and obey God.

As it turns out, this wasn’t Abraham’s most difficult test of faith, incredible as that promise must have seemed to a childless couple. Later, Abraham and Sarah would miraculously conceive and Sarah would give birth to a son, Issac. But Abraham’s faith would be tested again even more severely than before.

“Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, . . . ‘Take your son, your only son, Issac, whom you love, and to to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.’ ” (Genesis 22:1-2)

So Abraham took Issac and traveled up the mountain as God had instructed him to do. He built an altar, arranged the wood, bound Issac, laid him on the altar and took a knife to slay his son. It was at this moment things changed,

“But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, . . . ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son.’ ” (Genesis 22:11-12)

Abraham had responded in obedience and faith once again and had passed the test. We see what the results of his act of faith will be as we read these words in Genesis 22:16-18,

“”I swear by Myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed Me.”

To think that you and I are blessed and all nations are blessed because Abraham in faith, obeyed God! Could it be that my obedience and faith matter to God also? Could God use your actions or my actions of faith to bring blessings to other people? Years later, people still remembered Abraham’s actions at that altar on the mountain. James writes about Abraham’s act of sacrifice in his letter to the twelve tribes saying,

“Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isacc on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend.” (James 2:21-23)

It would seem that faith is a necessary prerequisite for obedience. Faith enables me, makes me bold enough to obey God. And my obedience being the result of my faith, is the evidence of my faith and completes my faith, as James said in his letter. James sums this relationship up with these words,

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds (action) is dead.” (James 2:26)

“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)

Our faith is revealed in our actions. Our faith comes to life in our actions. Our faith is lived out in our actions. I guess that’s why James says,

“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.” (James 1:22-25, italics mine)

faith really is an action verb!

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22, Revised Standard translation)

sincerely, Grace Day

I slow down involuntarily like I’ve done so many times before. But this is no longer my destination. My journey is not over. This is no longer home. I am not headed here, I just have to pass by on my way to somewhere else. But today as I drive down this once familiar street, much changed and yet much the same, it hits me. Though memory lane is usually a euphemistic term, for me, this street is more than a metaphorical memory lane. This street is literally a lane full of memories for me.

First I pass my old Jr. High School, which is now an empty lot as the building has been bulldozed long ago. Still standing, though in the process of falling down, is the old gym which sat next to the now missing school building. Still standing strong are a couple of trees which graced the building’s entrance and provided diversion for me as I sat in my second floor English class looking out the window. In the next block, I pass my grandparent’s house, now occupied by strangers. So many of our family gatherings took place here. I remember all the Thanksgivilngs and the Fourth of July backyard picnics complete with badminton. I had a certain tree in the backyard I liked to climb which gave me a special place all my own.

As I continue down the street, in the next block I pass my elementary school. It is bigger now, some new additions have been added onto the original building. Still, some of the field remains where the track was and a practice field for football. Now it is inevitable. If I continue down this road, this memory lane, in the next block I will come to a curve in the road and I will be home. Well, in another not so long ago time, I would have been home. But not now. The old brick barn is still standing right where it has stood for longer than I know and so is the house behind it. But they are no longer home because mom is no longer there.

The next house I pass, which sits next to this one, separated only by a side street, houses as many of my memories as the house by the barn. You see, I grew up in this small house with the big yard – a yard full of clover and croquette and black walnuts and lots of fallen leaves in the fall. The house with the barn was where my other grandmother lived during my childhood years. We eventually moved there and that house became home. Home is where your family lives.

My trip down memory lane is not over yet. As I continue down the street a couple more blocks, I arrive at my church. Well, it was my church my entire childhood and until I grew up and moved away, it was the only church I had ever known. Full of memories both mundane and profound, from Sunday evening youth choir practice to communion on a Sunday morning, this was the place of greatest impact on my life. So much more than Sunday morning memories, the life lessons I learned from God’s word are teaching me still. I remember my Sunday School teachers and feel fresh gratitude for each and every one of them as I drive by this landmark on my memory lane.

Down the road from my church is my high school. This is the last landmark on my trip down memory lane. Is it coincidence that the two places I spent the most time outside of home, school and church, are literally next to each other on the same street? I seldom drive down memory lane anymore, both literally and figuratively. Actually, the former leads to the latter. When I do have occasion to return to my hometown, my literal drive down my old street propels me on that accompanying journey of the mind, revisiting memories stored away, forgotten until called forth by a journey such as today’s.

At this point I recall Thomas Wolfe’s poignant words, “you can’t go home again.” Maybe that’s why even though I slow down as I drive past, I don’t stop. It is not my home anymore. Mom’s not there. I can’t go in. I can’t go back. I guess that’s why they call it a “trip down memory lane” – because it is a trip but not a destination. I have to keep on moving. No stopping on Memory Lane. Reality road is where I live now. In the present. In the here and now of today.

Funny to think that someday my present Reality Road will turn into my Memory Lane. For now, I hang onto the steering wheel, glancing at these landmarks as I pass by, not daring to linger long though the memories are good ones – but the loss of those I have loved too much to let fully in to the moment. Trips down memory lane are best when brief. So I drive on, reminded of what was by the landmarks that still stand, bearing witness to what was, giving my memories the substance of the reality from which they arose.

Still, it never feels right to round the curve and keep on going. That used to be the end point, my destination. That used to be home. I confess – It never feels right to drive on by. As I do, I feel directionless. What is my destination now? These words from John 14:1-3 answer that question in this way when Jesus said,

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”

This assurance of a destination, a home, contains all the comfort, the hope, the peace of mind and the promise of joy that I need. I have a secure, eternal destination being prepared for me. No matter how many hard places my Reality Road takes me, I will arrive at my desired destination Jesus is preparing for me. I will arrive at home. I won’t have to drive on by.

“Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

sincerely, Grace Day

Do you ever watch a movie you’ve already watched or read a book you’ve already read? I confess – I frequently find myself doing both of these things. The element of surprise is definitely gone but not of satisfaction as I relive the drama, the dilemma, the mystery, the struggle, the trial that needs to be overcome, along with the main characters. I can again be drawn into the story, even though I know how it will turn out. While the element of surprise is missing in my rereads/repeats, also absent is my fear and my worry over the outcome of the story, which I normally experience with a first read or a first viewing. Why? Because the first time I don’t know “the rest of the story.” I don’t know how it is all going to work out for each of the characters in the narrative. Will it end well? Will it end in defeat, disaster or death? Who is the killer? Will they finally get together and find true love? So many unknowns.

But with the reread or the rewatch, the fear, the anxiety, the worry and yes the suspense and the surprise are gone as I relive the story along with the people in the narrative. Except this time, I know how the story ends. This time, I know “the rest of the story.” I can read it/watch it without despairing that the hero/heroine will ever overcome the obstacles and achieve victory. Because often, just when all is lost and all options are exhausted, something unexpected happens and everything changes in that moment. All things are possible once again. I love a happy ending – and ending full of hope and possibility. Who doesn’t? Those are my favorite movies. Those are my favorite stories.

Maybe that’s why I revisit them over and over again. For some that might be the “Rocky” movies. For me the stories told in “Glory Road”, “Stand and Deliver”, “Hidden Figures”, “The Ron Clark Story”, “Harriet”, “October Sky”, “Rudy” and so many more, are the stories that continue to inspire because they are true and because they remind me not to give up but to hold on to hope and to keep fighting the good fight.

Today is a day for revisiting an age old story, the story of Good Friday. Good Friday is a memorable day in the history of the world. It is on this day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is one time I am glad I already know “the rest of the story.” I am imagining today what it was like for Jesus’s disciples, family and friends on the first Good Friday more than two thousand years ago. They didn’t know “the rest of the story.” They were living the story in real time. And the story was still being written right before their eyes. (of course God had written this story from the foundation of the world and the prophets had foretold it years ago but still, they didn’t seem to know how it would end)

So let’s join their story in progress. Their leader, their rabbi/teacher, their friend, their miracle working healer, the One who raised Lazarus from the dead, walked on water, calmed the sea and fed the five thousand was now hanging on a cross, being crucified between two criminals, as a public spectacle for all to witness. Three years earlier these men had left their families and their jobs to follow this Jesus and join Him in His work. Now they were watching Jesus die and wondering what would become of them.

I wonder if any of them recalled Jesus’s words to them from Luke 9:22, when He said –

“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders. chief priests and teachers of the law, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

We read the same account in Mark 9:31-32, told in these words,

“because He was teaching His disciples, He said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.’ But they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask Him about it.”

And now Jesus was hanging on a cross and there was nothing they could do to rescue Him. Luke 23:46 records for us how it ended,

“Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ When He had said this, He breathed His last.”

Our story continues,

“Now there was a man named Joseph, . . . a good and upright man . . . Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’s body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. . . . The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how His (Jesus) body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”

They were preparing spices and perfumes because that was the custom to prepare a dead body for burial. These women understood the finality of death. They were preparing for a funeral, not a resurrection. The disciples had scattered, devastated by the events they had just witnessed. What began with such promise had ended with such a painful punishment. Did any of them call to mind Jesus’s words in John 16:16 during the dark days that followed His death?

“In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me.”

Jesus’s disciples must have been filled with confusion, doubt, fear and despair following His death on that cross. How long that first night and the following day and night must have been. Death is so final. They had no plan B. They had each given their lives to Jesus and now He was gone. They had faced challenging times while Jesus was with them but He had been there to teach them and to guide them and to show them the way through trouble and hardship. Doubt now seemed to fill all the spaces their faith had filled just a few days earlier. Jesus, the light of the world, had died and the world was once again a dark place.

I can’t imagine witnessing the crucifixion of Jesus and not knowing “the rest of the story.” But that’s exactly where the men and women of that time in history found themselves, on the other side of the cross, where “the rest of the story” had not yet come to pass. They didn’t know a Resurrection was on the way. They didn’t know there would be light in the darkness and hope for the hopeless once again. They didn’t know the Creator of all life was about to triumph over death.

All they knew was that this miracle working Messiah lay in a tomb and everything He had began seemed now to be finished. They were sure it was over. There were no more options open, no more cards to play, no more moves to make – the last chapter of this story had been written. Now the book was closed, the tomb was sealed with a large stone, the end had come and endings are just that – the end of the road, the end of the journey with no more paths to take, no way to continue on, and no way of escape. Endings are full of the futility the appearance of finality brings with it. If only the disciples could have known that there was a “rest of the story” yet to come, as they mourned their loss. If only they could have known that this “end” would soon give way to a new beginning, their grief could have contained hope. But this wasn’t a reread of a familiar story (unless you count the Old Testament prophecies). This story was being written even as the disciples grieved its ending and Jesus’s death. They didn’t know. They didn’t know that they just had to hang on for a little while – hang on to something – to faith, to hope, to the words Jesus had spoken in their presence. They didn’t know this story wasn’t over. They didn’t know there was to be a surprise ending (really a new beginning) – an unforeseen yet long foretold plot twist which would fulfill every prophesy and save every soul. What a rescue! What a comeback! The greatest comeback story of all time! But they didn’t know “the rest of the story.” They didn’t know – a miracle was on the way! Our story continues –

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. . . . suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. . . . the men said, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee.’ ” (Luke 24:1-6) Matthew 28:5-8 tells it this way,

“The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where He lay. Then go quickly and tell His disciples: He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him. . . . So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell His disciples.”

What a joyous reunion that was! The resurrection of Jesus changed everything for everyone! After being reunited, Jesus continued teaching His disciples saying,

“This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about Me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. . . . This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what My Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:44-49)

And preach the good news of Jesus’s resurrection they did! This good news is still being shared and celebrated more than two thousand years later. Today we are remembering the crucifixion, but even as we relive it, we have the advantage that knowing “the rest of the story” gives us. We have the assurance, the sure hope that Sunday we will celebrate the Resurrection. We know how the story ends! We can read the book! (the Bible) And like with so many of my favorite true-life stories, remembering the defeats and the difficulties, makes reliving the victories all the more joyful.

in these days when hope seems to be put on hold indefinitely, I will rejoice in these words as I celebrate what came out of what seemed man’s darkest defeat – God’s greatest victory and gift to us – eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ.

“When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57)

sincerely, Grace Day

I am experiencing the tree falling in the forest dilemma once again. I finally completed a jigsaw puzzle but with no one here to bear witness to this accomplishment of mine, the question can be raised – ‘did I really finish the puzzle or not?’ I say finish because my older daughter started the puzzle and did about three-fourths of it before she left. So all I had to do was to fill in the remaining gaps, she had done the harder work of bringing the puzzle to this point. I confess – I am intimidated by all those tiny pieces and I further confess – I felt challenged in her absence, compelled even, to finish what she had started. So rather than putting the puzzle pieces back in the box, having never completed the picture that the puzzle would reveal, I dedicated myself to putting the remaining puzzle pieces into their proper places, thereby completing the picture.

Trouble is, they are tiny pieces which all look alike basically. Actually, there are differences in shape and in shading, but they are subtle differences, not obvious to the casual observer. These minute differences, which make all the difference in finding each piece’s proper place, only become apparent as I spend time studying the pieces and the possible connections available to make. It is a slow, time consuming process, this pastime of puzzling. Nevertheless, there is such a feeling of accomplishment when I find the proper place for each piece (after despairing of ever finding a fit for some of the pieces) and there is the thrill of victory when the puzzle is finally complete, every piece in place.

Too bad life isn’t like my puzzle – every piece in place, connecting together to create a beautiful picture. I think it was intended to be that way, but ever since ‘the fall’, which caused separation from our Creator, life has been full of missing pieces, disconnected pieces, pieces that don’t seem to fit together the way we want them to do in order to create the picture of our life that we are longing to have revealed. But maybe that’s part of the problem. With my puzzle, there is a picture on the box of what the puzzle will look like when all the pieces are correctly connected together. I can use that picture to guide me as I attempt to put the pieces together in the way they were meant to fit together. If I succeed in putting each piece in its proper place, my puzzle is a perfect reflection of the picture on the puzzle box.

But putting together the puzzle that is my life isn’t so easy. I don’t have a picture on a box to guide me. Then I realize the picture that I need is in God’s Word. The Bible contains the blueprint for my life. Everything I need to put the pieces together correctly is given to me in my Heavenly Father’s love letter to me, His Word, the Bible. I was made to reflect His glory, and when all the pieces are in place, that will happen. The master plan is His and I often don’t see the whole picture because my vision is so limited. That’s why I have to trust Him. By myself, I’m not all that, but connected to other people in God’s bigger puzzle picture, we all together become a thing of beauty, a beautiful reflection of the One who designed the mosaic and designed it with a specific place for each of us in His finished work.

What does a puzzle look like if even one piece is missing? It is glaringly incomplete. It is unfinished. Its value is diminished. Its beauty is marred. It is not whole because it has a hole. God feels the same way about us as His creation. Look what He says about the stars in Isaiah 40:26,

” . . . He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”

Our Creator is a God of completion, of perfection. Not even one star in all the galaxies of all the universe is missing! Likewise, I will not be, you will not be that missing puzzle piece in God’s mosaic. John 10:27-30 clearly explains it this way,

“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

We are held securely in God’s hands. He has a purpose for us. He has a place for us. You and I have a specific place to fill that no one else can fill. I know that in my puzzle, only one specific piece will fit perfectly in the space that is its to fill. No other piece is the exact right shape, the exact right shade and color combination to connect correctly to all the other puzzle pieces adjoining its space. 1 Peter 2:4-5 describes it like this,

“As you come to Him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

We are parts of a spiritual house being built, being put together by God for a purpose – the purpose of offering spiritual sacrifices to God – the purpose of reflecting His glory when the house, the mosaic, the puzzle God is putting together is complete. 1 Corinthians 12 tells us just how vital each piece, each part is to the whole and therefore is to God –

“The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. . . . But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. . . . Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 18-20, 27)

the lessons of the puzzle are many – I have a place, I have a purpose, I am a part of something bigger than myself. You, too, dear readers, have a place, have a purpose – you are a part of something bigger than yourself. We all search for a place to belong. As it turns out, God created us and prepared for us, prepared for you and for me, a place to belong, from the very beginning.

“For (you are, I am) we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Even if I can’t figure out quite where I fit in this big puzzle that is life, God knows which space is the space that only I can fill because He designed me uniquely, specifically with that space in mind, for me to fill that particular place in the puzzle. Being placed in that unique space requires that I connect perfectly with the puzzle pieces that surround me on every side. When I make those connections, more of the mosaic God is creating is revealed as it comes to life. What a beautiful, powerful picture of God’s loving intention towards each one of us.

We were created for connection! Our divine purpose and potential are only realized as we are connected to those around us, as we are connected to each other. We cannot fulfill our God given calling in isolation. The puzzle pieces are interlocking parts of a bigger picture. By themselves, no one piece conveys any sense of the whole. Only when the individual pieces are connected to each other, does the picture emerge. Maybe that’s why this past year has been so difficult. We have all faced hardships, loss and trials in our lives before. But we have always been able to face disasters in community with others, our families, friends, neighbors, coworkers, fellow church members etc. We did not have to face illness, unemployment, fear and uncertainty alone – until COVID. We were isolated at the very time we most needed connection.

Hopefully, it is now a time of reconnection, a time of finding our place in the puzzle and locking arms with our connecting pieces of the puzzle. I want to find and to fill my place in God’s puzzle. The beautiful thing about this mosaic put together by God is that each and every piece is irreplaceable and of infinite value. That’s you and that’s me, that is each and every piece/person created in God’s image. We are all equally precious in God’s sight and so should we then be in each other’s sight. I recognize that without you, my brothers and my sisters, without even one of you, this puzzle which God is putting together, will have a hole in it. This puzzle will not be complete. Each puzzle piece is uniquely irreplaceable, just as each person is to God. This is the lesson my puzzle taught me today.

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” (Matthew 18:12-14)

Today, may you know how much your Heavenly Father loves you – you have a place in His puzzle – a space all your own, that only you can fill . . .

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

sincerely, Grace Day

There is an old musical “South Pacific” which I loved as a child and still do today. We actually performed that musical in high school. There is a song from South Pacific, whose words seem particularly relevant today. The song title is “You’ve got to be carefully taught.” Some of the lyrics are, “You’ve got to be taught to hate and to fear, You’ve got to be taught from year to year, It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear, You’ve got to be carefully taught.” The words continue in the second verse with,

“You’ve got to be taught to be afraid, of people whose eyes are oddly made, and people whose skin is a different shade, You’ve got to be carefully taught.” A third verse continues, “You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, Before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all the people your relatives hate, You’ve got to be carefully taught!”

This song and these words play in my head often as I watch events unfold on the news and wonder (along with everyone else probably) what this world is coming to? Division and conflict are nothing new to human history, however. In the musical West Side Story, rival gangs were fighting each other. In Romeo and Juliet, it was the Capulets and the Montagues that were at war with each other. They all had the same skin color, just different last names. It seems we will allow ourselves to be divided and set against one another for any reason, be it gender, age, economic group, religious group, political persuasion, educational group, skin color group, ethnic group, working group, (management vs. labor), rural vs. urban, – the list is endless because there is no end to the myriad of ways we are taught to classify, identify and separate ourselves from each other. We have to be taught to do this.

We are taught to focus on our differences rather than on our similarities and our commonalities. It’s like the song says, “we have to be carefully taught.” And taught we have been. Or maybe, for some of us, we weren’t taught to hate and we’ve been getting along pretty well until now, when we are being told to hate, even if that is not what we were taught. We are being manipulated, taught, to hate and to fear one another all over again. All our past progress is being undermined by those that would benefit from social unrest and division. Hard to believe that not everyone wants peace. Yes, not everyone is pursuing peace, or even desires peace in our time.

The antidote to hate is love. Just as we have to be taught to hate, as the song says, we can also be taught to love. We can learn how to love because love is an action verb, not a feeling. We read a further definition of love in 1 John 4:10-12,

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

We get further clarification about what love looks like from these words,

“We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:19-21)

Seems pretty clear – we are to love each other, not spend our time hating each other. We all share something in common – our origin.

“Then God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Created in God’s image, we were created and commanded to love God and to love each other.

“The most important one, . . . Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31)

We realize our God given potential through our acts of love. Acts of hate only diminish us as well as those who are the objects of our hate. The way out of our current state of affairs is to learn to love each other. If we can be taught to hate, as the song says, we can also learn to love. God’s word leads us in this learning process of what love truly looks like.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:10)

that says it all, doesn’t it? love does no harm – love does no harm – if we all lived by that law, how different our lives would look . . .

sincerely, Grace Day

I have a lot of those laying around my house, “works in progress”. They clutter up my basement, my garage, my closets. They litter my life with their unfinished, unrealized potential, leaving me feeling vaguely restless and incomplete myself. No wonder that today I am still thinking on those words from Ephesians 2:10 – after yesterday’s post, “a work of art.,” I can’t get them out of my mind.

“For we are (you are, I am) God’s workmanship, (handiwork, creation, masterpiece) created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

But I have to confess to you, dear readers – today I don’t feel much like, actually anything like a masterpiece. Today I don’t feel like “a work of art” at all. I feel more like a work in progress. And very slow progress at that. I feel as though I have been “under construction” for a very long time. There’s a very good reason I should feel this way. It’s true! I am a work in progress. And God isn’t done with me yet. I don’t need to be discouraged, even though the progress does seem oh so slow to me. I have this promise from God’s word in Philippians 1:6 –

“being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

These words are reassuring to me for a couple of reasons. One is, it is God doing the work in me, not me. It is His power, His creativity, His Master Artist’s eye and His Master Artist’s plan that He is creating in me and bringing forth in His timing, according to His perfect design. My part is simply to submit to Him as the Master Artist. The second reassurance is this – God is not going to give up on me. (like I have done with projects or works in the past) He is going to carry His work in me forward until it is complete. Completion is up to the artist. An artist knows when His creation is complete. My Heavenly Father will not abandon me, nor will He leave me unfinished. I can rest secure in His promise that He will complete His work in me.

After all, God was the One, the Artist, who began His creation of me as His personal masterpiece. He was there from the beginning. I was His idea!

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13-16)

These words remind me that all God’s works of creation are wonderful. And I am one of them! Each one of us is a masterpiece of God’s creation because everything that God does is good and perfect. Philippians 2:13 tells me,

“for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose.”

His good purpose, that’s something I can count on. He is getting me ready for that day when He will complete His work in me.

“But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation – if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.” (Colossians 1:22-23)

My Heavenly Father truly is the Master Artist, if when He finishes His work in me, I have become holy and without blemish and free from sin’s accusations and free from the stains sin leaves behind, marring my appearance. But God will bring me forth as gold, as His masterpiece, when He has finished His work in me.

“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)

Yes, I am God’s workmanship and God is still working on me and in me to conform me to the image of His Son, Jesus, and to complete the masterpiece that He began when He created me. He began a masterpiece, a work of art, when He created you, too, dear reader. And our Heavenly Father is still holding the brush, adding color and texture and richness to our life’s canvas, smoothing away the rough edges, correcting our mistakes, filling in the empty spaces – with the outcome of a beautiful work of art, His vision for my life and for your life, too.

You and I can’t see what God sees in us. We can’t know the vision that guides God’s hand as He faithfully completes our canvases. We just have to trust His work in our lives to bring forth His masterpiece in each one of us, because His word says we are all God’s workmanship or handiwork. And even though we are all, works in progress now, we certainly would do well to start treating each other like the future masterpieces we are all on our way to becoming under God’s guiding, creating almighty hand.

Might as well get a head start, right? So today, even though I am not feeling like one of God’s “works of art”, I can know that this “a work in progress” phase will eventually come to an end and He will complete His work in me.

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20-21)

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

God, as the Master Artist, is making us new through His creative, transformative power, each and every day, making me and you into the masterpieces we already are and will one day be. Let us not give up on God (He doesn’t give up on us) and let us not give up on ourselves or on each other – we are all works in progress under God’s perfecting touch – masterpieces in the making –

sincerely, Grace Day

I have a friend who creates works of art out of old and broken things. Now I confess – when she described to me what she uses to create her art, I couldn’t visualize anything of value or of beauty being made from these discarded, broken materials. But then I saw her works of art for myself. Their beauty took my breath away. Who would have guessed that such beautiful works of art could be created from discarded canvases and broken glass? But seeing is believing and the proof was right before my eyes in dazzling, joyful, glittering, light reflecting, colorful canvases. What a transformation my friend, the artist, accomplishes in bringing these works of art into existence.

I can’t help but think of Ephesians 2:10 when I look at her artwork. It says,

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Other translations of this verse say we are God’s handiwork, or His creation, or His masterpiece. In each case, God as our Creator, is the only artist who can bring beauty from our lives even if all we give Him to work with is ashes and brokenness. Maybe that’s why I so identified with my friend’s art work. She brought beauty out of what she had – she brought beauty out of broken glass and discarded canvases.

I guess that’s what I want God to do with my life – make something beautiful out of all the brokenness and dust. I can see that’s what He’s doing with my friend’s life. We are born into this broken world and then we are broken by the hurts, the hardships, the evils, the trials that come into our lives, sometimes at such a young age, we have no defense and no escape. We are broken beings living in this badly broken world. Who can make sense of and bring beauty from the bits and pieces of a broken life, with all its shattered fragments, sharp shards and jagged edges producing pain and keeping everyone at a distance? My friend’s broken glass art is to me a visual metaphor of our broken lives and what God can make of them if we will but allow Him to work His way in us.

This is good news to me, that God can and does use the broken, the blemished, the discarded, the unlovely to create His masterpiece for His glory. That’s actually our purpose, His glory, to bring glory to Him, to glorify our Creator, God.

“. . . everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” (Isaiah 43:7)

I would think an unbroken mirror would do the best job of reflecting, because it would provide a smooth, unbroken reflection. In the same way, I would assume an unbroken person (if there is such a thing), a person with a smooth exterior surface, would do the best job of reflecting God’s glory. But my friend’s broken glass art work produces a dazzling brilliance of light and of reflected light – light in constant motion, ever changing and engaging, light different from every angle, light endlessly revealing and reflecting off of too many surfaces to count – that an unbroken mirror is not capable of producing. That’s the thing about broken glass – it has multiple facets rather than one smooth surface. Multiple facets mean more ways to reflect light – more ways to reflect God’s glory – more ways to glorify God. When my friend takes old, broken mirrors and smashes them to smithereens, they are now ready to become part of a new creation – a new work of art, which will be a thing of light-reflecting beauty, bringing joy to all who behold it.

Funny how the bits and pieces of broken glass, the shattered fragments and the sharp edges produce such a thing of beauty under my artist friend’s careful hand. Likewise, I never would have considered that maybe my broken life, with all of its bits and pieces, full of shattered dreams and hopes and the sharp edges of hurt and rejection, would be better able to reflect God’s glory and bring Him honor and praise, precisely because of its brokenness. Brokenness lets the light in, brokenness exposes multiple surfaces, multiple facets to the light. Brokenness lets the light do its illuminating, beautifying work and ultimately the work of reflecting God’s glory. No greater joy than that!

God, as the Master Artist, can take all the shattered, broken bits and pieces of my life and put them together in a way that creates something brand new and beautiful – something that is able to reflect His glory infinitely better than before. Sometimes we have to be broken to be used by God. Sometimes we have to be broken in order to be able to realize our full beauty and value to God. As my artist friend does her work of breaking glass and then creating something beautiful, something full of light and lifegiving out of what would otherwise be discarded rubble, I see her living out the metaphor of what God can and will do in each and every one of us. If we bring our brokenness, all of it, all our broken pieces to Him, He will take what we offer up to Him and in His hands, it will become something new and beautiful, full of light and life.

Soon I will have one of my artist friend’s works of art hanging in my home. It will be a visual reminder to me that God can bring beauty from brokenness. My Heavenly Father will bring beauty from my brokenness. I will be reminded of that promise and that hope every time I watch the light reflecting off multi-faceted (broken) surfaces of the broken glass now transformed into a thing of beauty.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

we are God’s masterpieces! we are God’s works of art!

sincerely, Grace Day