Made In The Image

What is the most beautiful thing you can think of? 
I doubt the first thing that comes to mind is something broken, shattered or cracked. However, I’ve learned something about broken things; they’re really beautiful in the right hands. His. 

In a world obsessed with appearance, I think we all crave something deeper, something more. The kind of beauty Instagram can never capture. Beauty that touches the hem of His garment, the kind that transcends what we think we know, the kind that touches heaven. 

Embracing being made in the image of God means recognizing our responsibility to care for all that God has entrusted us with. Taking care of our bodies, recognizing the gifts and talents He has given us and making it a priority to grow, strengthen and share them! 

The sooner we stop trying to become a duplicate of someone else, we can embrace who God made us to be. The sooner we stop projecting the image of having everything together, the sooner God’s grace can truly work in us, and through us. The Bible says, “we have this treasure in jars of clay…” (2 Cor. 4:7) and that God is the one who fashions us, “we are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:8).
This means that to God, you are truly a piece of art! 

The Japanese art form, Kintsugi, is a specialized method of repairing broken pots and other ceramics with a special lacquer that’s mixed with precious metal (gold, silver or platinum). The beautiful metaphor here is that when finished, the repaired item is always considered to be more desirable than before it was ever broken. I think this is a lot like the process God takes us through too. 

I have found that it is the struggle and tension here in finding
our identity and confidence in Christ that bring the most beauty and transformation. 
It’s here, in our most broken places, that God meets us in unique, personal and supernatural ways. 

How can you find the beauty in the breaking of your own story? What would it look like for you to fully embrace whom God made you to be and truly believe that you are His masterpiece? 

This is the beautiful exchange of Isaiah 61:3. You bring your ashes, He gives you beauty. The kind we search our entire lives here for. The real kind. And this kind is only found in one place. 

An encouraging story that I love: 

There was once a group of women studying the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. As they were studying chapter three, they came across verse three, which says: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.” This verse puzzled the women, and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out about the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible study.

Later that week, this woman made an appointment with a silversmith to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot, then she thought again about the verse, that he sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. 

The man answered, “Yes” and went on to explain that he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be damaged. The woman then asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?” He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy. When I see my image in it.” 

So, if today you are feeling the heat of the refining fire, just know that God has His eyes on you.