Take Heart

Some verses seem to jump off the page... nearly shouting at you to slow down and savor.  They stick with you and in you and warm your heart like that first sip of hot tea on a cold day.  

Like John 16:33:  "I have said these things to you that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart.  I have overcome the world."

The other day I was busily working away when Janie suddenly came downstairs and handed me this:

She had just made it.   Apparently if you take crayons and apply a lot of heat to them, they melt and make magic... creating something that looks like oil painting. 

 Isn't it something what heat can accomplish?  Tribulation.  Sorrow.  Affliction.  The heat of suffering in our lives can bring great beauty in it's wake.  God allows that heat to purify and prune and refine and reveal.  Sometimes we have to search through all those broken places, though, to find the beauty shining through the cracks.  

I had heard Janie's hair dryer humming away upstairs but just assumed her hair was obviously going to look terrific that day--although we are not the big hair-do/hair dryer types in our house.

Who knew hair dryers could be put to such productive use?  I've got her painting right in front of me where I study...as a reminder.  Of His faithfulness.  Of His grace.  Of His never failing promises.

Janie had never mentioned what this verse meant to her.  But it is her story: "In this world you will have tribulation."  Yes, she has already experienced the harsh reality of that in her young life.  The accident reminded all of us that we live on a broken planet.  A place that can be full of sorrow and fear. Disappointment.  Defeat.  Even despair.

"But take heart.  I have overcome the world."

That is what He has done--in His infinite mercy and grace--for her.

But also for all of us... in different ways, of course, but His words prove true for all His own.

Those words pierce the darkness.  Shatter the thick ice of our fear and resentment in suffering.  

He has overcome the world.

He has overcome our sins by His death on the cross.

He has overcome our selfishness, our pride, our hatred, our indifference.

He has overcome satan and death.

And in Him, we can take heart.  For the Overcomer is with us and in us and for us. 

He sustains and strengthens in the midst of the brokenness.   And right in the heart of that brokenness, right in it's midst, He is working, always working...and creating beauty.  

Beauty from the broken crayons.  

Beauty using heat.

Beauty that will never fade.

Beauty taking broken, sinful people and bringing glory to His name.  

So today, if you are in the furnace--"Take Heart."  Not my paltry words--His eternal words.

  He is with you in the furnace.  Right there. Never closer.  

And He has overcome it all. And is using it to create a masterpiece--with you and in you. 

A masterpiece that will proclaim forever the wonder of His love and the glory of His grace.

So today, take heart.  He's overcome.  The beauty is coming.  He's promised.

To God, our glorious Overcomer and Savior, be all the glory.