Each Child: A Divine Masterpiece
“Whatcha doin, Brady?” I smiled as my grandson sorted through an ice-cream pail full of homemade chocolate chip cookies. “Lookin for a big un!” he said.
Chocolate chip cookies are a must around my kids and grandkids, and I love to watch them come in and head for the freezer. Some of them like them that way, and some of them microwave them so they taste like fresh-baked. It’s so fun to watch them (sometimes even the “grown-up” kids) search for the bigger ones or the ones with more chocolate chips.
This past Sunday two of my grandsons spread peanut butter on top of them while a grand-daughter dipped hers in milk. So today I made a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies along with a batch of my usual recipe I’m told not to digress from. 
They probably won’t go for it though, because my traditional ones turned out much bigger…
Precious moments! That’s what my husband and I call them. The joys of watching our kids and now our grandkids grow and enjoy life. One of our favorite pasttimes is to watch them all interact with eachother. And with cookies, etc.
When I see my fifteen grandchildren and their individual personalities, I marvel at how God created each one with special gifts and mannerisms. How can there be so many unique creations?
And yet, fifteen is only a grain of sand in the sea compared to all the children God has created. Each one created as a Divine masterpiece, an exquisite work of art from the moment they are conceived as a seed in the womb. Yes, we are so blessed to have our own extra-special children and grandchildren who brighten our lives with so many precious memories, but I passionately believe that each and every child in this world is a blessing and a priceless legacy. Each child is a gift God desires we cherish more than the finest jewel on earth. Each one is a special seed God wants us to love and nurture into a blossoming flower.
Amy Grant‘s song – The Children of the World – imparts an awesome message of carrying on for the children of the world:
“For the children of the world
Every single little boy and girl
Heaven plants a special seed
And we must have faith for these
Red and yellow, black and white
They are precious in the Father’s eyes
Like the Father may we see that they have a destiny
And give them the light of love to lead
Through the darkness around us now
To a place where hope is found.”
GOD BLESS EACH AND EVERY CHILD IN THIS WORLD!
Like this:
Clay in the Potter’s Hands
“A good thing is never made in a hurry,” said Great Woman to impatient Corn Tassel in Lois Lenski’s Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison
I identify with Corn Tassel’s impatience of the process. I can be a petulant child when it comes to God’s forming and molding me more to His liking. I have such an independent, haughty, and stubborn spirit. I sometimes am convinced God does not know what’s best for me. I think I can do it better.
I complain against the way my Heavenly Potter has created me as clay in His hands. I think I’m not good enough or gifted enough. I think I am ugly when actually He has created me as a Divine masterpiece, unique and special. Then as He pounds me down to soften me enough to shape to His will, I fret that He is taking too long. When He begins to shape me, I kick and scream, “No! No! No! Not that way. That curve needs to be straightened. That section doesn’t need to be shaved off. It hurts too much!” Then in the firing process – “No! No! No! This fire is heated too hot. I can’t bear this. I surely will burst with the pain. I will never come out of this trial more beautiful than before.” And on and on…
I continually kick against the Potter’s way and don’t trust that He knows perfectly what He is doing and He knows best how to shape me into a vessel that will hold and pour out His glory. My impatience paces back and forth as I fume about the long process, not realizing a good thing is never made in a hurry.
There are so many processes in life that never benefit us by trying to hurry them along. We want immediate fixes and visual evidences of a positive result. We want God to instantly answer our prayers and grant us our desires, but we don’t realize that refusal or waiting does us more good than immediate affirmation. Many of the things we ask for, either for ourselves or others, arent’ even good for us or them. We would be much better off if we didn’t fight against the process God uses to mold us or our loved ones. Hardening ourselves against the loving Potter’s hands is detrimental to our well-being. Allowing ourselves to be pliable in His all-knowing, skillful hands and trusting His design and process to make us more like Him will in the end make us more beautiful, valuable, and usable vessels of His glory.
“You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me’? Can the pot say of the potter, ‘He knows nothing?’” Isaiah 29:16
“Thank You, O Precious Potter, for counting us worth creating and molding, for caring for us so lovingly and freely with Your full attention on each and every one of us. Make us willing in Your hands and help us to trust You with the process of bringing us closer to You. Sometimes we can hurt so much, but help us to trust that any pain allowed in our lives serves to teach us to be more like You, so loving and forgiving and healing towards anyone who hurts. So many are wounded and weary, Lord, but all power belongs to You. Remember each wounded spirit. Touch each of us and heal us. Fill us with Your Spirit so that all will see that You are living in us! Make us pliable in Your all-knowing, Almighty hands and form us into vessels of Your grace and glory. Thank You, Jesus, for sacrificing Your life for us! Thank You for Your all-sufficient grace and complete forgiveness and unconditional love!”
I Want to Know Christ and the Power of His Resurrection…
“I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death…” Phillipians 3:10
This verse has been my prayer for nearly forty years, but not always in its entirety. At first I was most focused on “I want to know Christ.” Really, truly know Him. Deeply, personally, intimately. I want His desires and His passions to become mine. I want to “know” Him so well that I will live and breathe Him with every step I take in this life.
I can never know Jesus enough. There is so much to learn. I want to love Him more deeply and continue to grow in Him so that I will become more like Him in all my thoughts, words, and actions. So many things in life throw up roadblocks to getting closer to Him, but I need to press on. Through His power I can level them.
Eventually my longing turned also towards the second part of this verse: “I want to know… the power of His resurrection.” To be imbued with that power of Christ that can rise from the dead, to be so enfused and fired up with Christ’s power in me that I will live for Him with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind. That I will live in and through Christ and His power with every fiber of my being.
I cannot even imagine what would have happened if Christ had remained in the grave. My sins would have been buried with Him, but where would be the freedom? The joy in being released from the captivity of death? How I rejoice in the POWER of His resurrection!
But what is the third request in this verse? “I want to know… the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” My heart says, “NO! NO! NO! I don’t WANT any more sufferings…” I just can’t wrap my mind around this one. And yet I have learned that it is through sufferings that I have learned the most about Christ. It is through sufferings that I learn to be more like Him. It is through sufferings that I experience more of the power of His resurrection. Still… it’s really tough to pray this part…
There are times when I pray that God will use whatever is necessary to make me more like Him, but then later I sometimes have to cry, “O God, I do want to know You more and be more like You, but now I’m almost sorry I asked… Does it really have to be through such a painful way?” Then again I have to lay my heart and my life down at His feet and sigh, “Yes, Lord, I am Your child, and I know that in order to be more like You, I must also know more what it is like to share in Your sufferings.” Then I scold myself for complaining, because God loves me so deeply and unconditionally and He will never allow anything to happen in my life that will not draw me into a more personal relationship with Him and nudge me more into living in and through the power of His resurrection. And no matter what kind of sufferings I go through in this life, it will never, ever be even a speck of what Jesus has suffered for me to free me from all my sins. What body, mind, and soul anguish He endured! Wow! Such incomprehensible love!
So, ok, God, if I may learn to praise You more, to be more like Jesus, to live in and through Your power, then I will try more to pray also to know more of Your sufferings. Thank You so much for Your unselfish love and all-sufficient grace and unending compassion! Please bless those who read this. Bless them with the POWER of Your resurrection! Give them to know You more personally and intimately. And if it must happen through knowing more of what it is to suffer, then strengthen them to remember that the suffering we endure here will never compare to the glory You have in store for us. AMEN!
HAVE A POWERFULLY BLESSED EASTER!
