The photo this week is reflections on ice. It is not two photos spliced together. The ice divided itself naturally through freezing, thawing then refreezing. The wind can really blow hard where this was taken. I imagine the clear part never completely thawed, while the blurred and segmented part did. When it refroze the wind splashed the water over the barely frozen bits, resulting is a blurry mosaic. The result is a severely deformed reflection.
This photo is an illustration to me of uncertainties in life and how they can affect us. Life blows over us and we do not always stay firm, or at least not every part of us. We are all broken in some way: physically, emotionally, spiritually. No one has escaped the pain of heartache on some level.
Jesus certainly knows what we have been through. He fasted for 40 days and experienced hunger and temptations, He was rejected by the people of His home town Nazareth, Judas betrayed Him, but He didn’t break. That is why Jesus is qualified to take and deal with our brokenness.
Jesus paid for all the fragments of our lives. Our lives are no longer ours, we have been bought with a price. His perfection qualified Him to be our substitute.
The season of Lent invites us to take stock of where we have been and where we are now, then give back to God the imperfections He already paid for on the Cross of Calvary.
Lent gets a bad wrap for being solemn because we are asked to look at our broken messes. Without the Cross in view, our prospects are indeed grim. On the other hand, because we know the story already, I believe Abba wants us to celebrate, even in Lent. We can “clean house” because we do not have to stay in our messes.
His blood shed on the cross invites us to bring Him our shattered pieces so He can redeem them. Will the redeemed reflection be perfect? Almost certainly not in this life, however, nothing we have experienced is worthless. Abba always finds ways to use our experiences to help others, if we allow Him to melt us and remold us in to His image.
As I am learning to give my shattered pieces to God, I have also learned to ask for what he wants to give me in exchange. I am often pleasantly surprised because I always end up on the good side of the exchange. That can only be a God thing.
What is Abba inviting you to give Him? Don’t forget to ask for what he wants to give you in exchange.
