We Stand in Awe
by Sharon L. Reidenbach
By Sharon L. Reidenbach
What makes us haul our cameras to places like
the Grand Canyon,
Zion National Park, the Dunhuang Dunes of Western
China, or Carlsbad
Caverns? Isn’t it to see the wonders of how our
master Potter sculpted
the landscape with wind, ice, sand, water,
volcanoes, and storms to
create layers of color, unusual twists and curves,
deep valleys, and
shifting dunes? We stand in awe. “But now, O Lord,
You are our Father,
we are the clay, and You are our potter; and all
we are the work of
Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8, NKJV). He uses whatever
it takes to bring out
the best.
I’m a novice wood worker. And the same marvels
on a smaller scale
are discovered when working on a lathe. I use a
spindle gouge to cut
and design as the wood turns. It’s exciting to
watch what’s inside the
wood come to life after stripping the outer layers
away. To reach that
inner beauty I can’t miss a step in cutting,
sanding, polishing,
staining, and waxing.
And God doesn’t cut corners either. We’re told
not to give up, our
fiery trials will, [by a spindle gouge] one day,
reveal the inner
beauty of our faith: “Greatly rejoice, though now
for a little while,
if need be, you have been grieved by various
trials” (I Peter 1:7)
But God, in His wisdom, gave us Spring to give
us strength in
facing the challenge of our ‘shaping’. I am the
promise of hope, says
Spring, that suffering has an end in God’s design:
“To everything
there is a season, time for every purpose under
heaven” (Ecclesiastes
3:1). The Christ rose from the dead after
suffering on the cross
giving Eternal Life; the seeds that died in fall
pierced the earth
with new flowers; caterpillars suffered the loss
of self to a
beautiful butterfly, and the trees endured the
painful pruning to
produce greater shade in the summer: “I am the
true vine, and my
Father is the vine dresser. . . And every branch
that bears fruit He
prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John
15:1-2).
Will we get to see if our suffering resembles
one of nature’s
magnificent structures, or a hidden treasure
inside a block of wood,
or grace the table in a flower vase? No one knows
but God. We may not
witness the beauty of our tribulations until the
other side of the
emerald city. But we can know for sure: “Weeping
may endure for a
night, but joy [the unbelievable joy from our
molding trials] comes in
the morning” (Psalm 30:5). And that; “Those of us
in Christ are a new
creation; old things have passed away, behold, all
things are new” (2
Corinthians 5:17).
This season, look for the message of Spring’s
revealing hope.
God’s assurance of life after suffering is all
around us. And watch
how nature glorifies Christ, who gave the greatest
‘hope’ of all:
Eternity and His love forever.
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