April 22nd
Life's Dents
After my wife, Nancy, and I had been married around four years, we decided to purchase a dinning room suite. We had been using a sort of make-shift table. I had mounted a large painted oak round top to some legs; had converted an old glass front bookcase to a china cabinet.
Now, we were so proud of what we selected and could hardly wait for its delivery. Soon it came...the table, 5 chairs plus the captain chair, the china cabinet and the buffet. We did take extra good care of it. Every time we used it we put down the pads on the table top before the tablecloth. I must say for many years (and I mean many) with all the 5 children we took extra good care of it. (In fact, I often polished it after every use.) BUT, and I quickly say "but" in the course of time the table got a nick and then there was a scratch. I remember telling the kids, "If you have to use the table put down some sort of a backing. Do not write on your paper unless there is something under the paper." The reason for that being we discovered something. The soft table top easily took on the character of impressions.
Here is where we shift gears. The table was made of really soft wood. I had discovered that some writing had been permanently inscribed on the table top. And to carry this story through the next 33 years (at the time of this writing) one can see, and especially when the light is just right, a lot of "character" to our dinning room table. My, there are dents from a flying toy, there are scratches from objects being moved across it without lifting them up, there marks from adding a column of figures - and the list goes on. While it is still a most beautiful piece of workmanship it speaks a silent sermon.
How so? My life is like that table. My life has "dents" made by hurled words; my life has scratches from sad events; my life has a gouge of mistakes made by me and my life, and like the table, has scars from disappointments, etc.
Here is the point: With all the marks on my body, some may actually be physical, there are marks on my "inner man" God wants me to come to him like I am. He wants me to say, "Here, Lord, I present myself to you. Take me, mold me, make me and thank you for accepting me."
His Word says (Matthew 11:28) "Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened..."
God does not want you to wait until you have "refinished" your life, or wait until you are "better", He wants you to present yourself to him now.
My prayer for you
Lord, I ask, in the name of Jesus that this one just as they are and in their present condition, come to you. With a child like faith grant to them assurance of forgiveness and the influence of your Holy Spirit to "forget the past scratches" and move toward a beauty in you.
Amen