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Gleanings From The Word

Category: devotional

  • Sea Glass

    Beauty from Brokenness

    During a recent trip to Vancouver Island, I collected a few pieces of sea glass (also called beach glass).  Most of the pieces I collected were small clear or brown bits, but I did pick up a few blue and green fragments.

    Sea glass starts its life as broken bits of bottles and other discarded glass. It’s glass that, for whatever reason, is no longer useful and thrown away. Over time, water and erosion polish it into something refined and beautiful.

    People collect sea glass to make crafts and jewelry, or simply because of its color. It can come in any color of the rainbow, depending on what color glass it started as.

    It fascinated me because something broken and discarded can end up so beautiful. It reminds me of Christians.

    Before we become believers, we are anything but beautiful. We were created in God’s image but have been marred by sin and the knocks of life. We often feel discarded and purposeless.

    God takes the broken bits of our lives and, out of love, gives us the gift of faith to become believers. We are born again and adopted into God’s family. We still have polishing and repair work to do in this life, but He works on us, conforming us to the image of Christ.

    He doesn’t do that because we deserve it. We could never get our acts together to warrant salvation. He does it out of love, purchasing us with His own shed blood. When a sinner is saved, it truly is a miracle.

    Throughout the Scriptures we see declarations that God saves the discarded and broken

    The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; Isaiah 61:1-2 ESV

    The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:13 ESV

    Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 ESV

    The circumstances of your life may have left you feeling broken and discarded. Others might have rejected you, but God loves you beyond measure. He will make something beautiful from you and the mess of life.

    Trust in Him and rejoice.

    Be blessed,

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    I found beauty in broken sea glass on a beach on Vancouver Island. It reminded me that God takes the broken and discarded and makes them new through faith.

    TAKEAWAY

    Sea glass starts out as broken, discarded trash before years of water and erosion make it beautiful.

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  • Deeply rooted in Christ

    When we visited Steveston last week, we spotted this deeply rooted tree along the shore of Scotch Pond. At high tide, the roots are completely underwater. Despite the hardship, the tree seems to be thriving.

    The Bible uses the imagery of being well rooted many times for good reason. Being deeply rooted gives reliance and protection. All of us are rooted in something.

    Every person has faith in something or someone that carries them through life. It might be religion, or money, or their looks, family name or a myriad of other things that you might think of. The problem is that at some point all of those things will fail you. Only rooting yourself in Christ will hold.

    The prophet Jeremiah reminds us of the blessings of being rooted in the Lord.

    “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

    whose trust is the Lord.

    He is like a tree planted by water,

    that sends out its roots by the stream,

    and does not fear when heat comes,

    for its leaves remain green,

    and is not anxious in the year of drought,

    for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 ESV

    We see a similar theme in the Psalms

    Blessed is the man

    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

    nor stands in the way of sinners,

    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

    but his delight is in the law[b] of the Lord,

    and on his law he meditates day and night.

    He is like a tree

    planted by streams of water

    that yields its fruit in its season, 

    and its leaf does not wither.

    In all that he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3 ESV

    Our roots grow deeper when our faith is tested, and Jesus carries us through.  A faith that has never been tested likely has very shallow roots. God gives us times of struggle to help us grow. He lets the parts of us we don’t like to admit are still there surface so we can deal with them. He puts tough people and situations in our way to teach us and send our roots deeper than ever.

    Christ never promised us an easy, trouble-free life. He gives us circumstances and situations to help us grow and become more like Him.

    It isn’t all hardship, but we can rejoice in good times or bad, high tide or low, knowing that having our roots in Jesus will hold us, and we are blessed.

    May your roots run deep.

    Kevin

    SUMMARY

    We spotted this tree along the shore of Scotch Pond in Steveston. At high tide, its roots disappear completely, and yet it keeps thriving.

    TAKEAWAY

    We might root our lives in money, looks, family name, or a dozen other things, but every one of those will eventually let us down.

    Jeremiah and Psalm 1 both picture the faithful as a tree planted by water, its leaves green even in drought.

    Our roots grow deepest not in the easy seasons but in the hard ones, because that’s when Christ proves He’ll hold.

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