Thursday, April 28, 2011

Different Parts: For Jen

Don't you just feel that sometimes we are like junkyard cars? You know, the cars that have different color doors and a hood that once belonged to another car. Put together with so many foreign elements, sometimes not one thing is original.

I feel like that sometimes.

Not very original.

Interchangeable parts.

Because the old ones stopped working, were damaged, or whatever.

Damaged parts.

So many of us have been wounded, whether by inheritance, or directly. We all have some damaged goods somewhere, not quite functioning the way it should be. Always fixed for a little bit, then going out of whack again.

But my uncle used to call all his cars Cadillacs. Cars beaten by age and experience, seats riddled with rips and tears, engines noisy, shaking as they chugged down the road. They were junkyard cars in everyone's eyes, but in his eyes, they got him to where he needed to go. Where we saw chipped paint, grimy and old, he saw polished, gleaming and glorious, like a shiny new Cadillac.

So in His eyes, as beat up as we are, as wasted and used we may feel, to Him we are still his brand new Cadillacs, always beautiful, always useful, no matter what condition.

Maybe, in our used conditions, broken as I love to hear you say, put together with different parts, we serve a purpose, we are still needed. The more damaged our goods, the harder He looks to find a piece that fits, to make us work again. A little different, but functioning nonetheless. He loves you, and He loves me, and the world may see it differently, but if we look at things His way then we know that it's not the exterior that makes the vehicle. It's what is inside, underneath the hood that makes the car run.

Not sure if you even care for cars. It's just what came to mind when I read your message.

And how very tender are we, our dear Father hand-picking the right pieces, the right people to help us drive, to show us our destinations, even if they themselves have trouble finding their own way. We need one another, each possessing a talent to get us all home.

And all we carry, all He's given us, the pretty and the ugly, is all we need to get us there.

I'm not ashamed of my past anymore. I don't hide from it anymore because He freed me from that prison. In those very nails that fastened Him to the tree are the keys to my salvation; mine and yours. I don't need to hold on to something that never belonged to me in the first placed. What happened to me did break me, but never made me. I am still Ivy, God's child no matter what needs repairing. And when I've been broken, God came right over to fix it, gave me a new part. I didn't even need to ask.

Now that is some good roadside assistance huh?

Love you with all my heart.
God bless!

No comments:

Post a Comment