All of this from a pile of rocks…

       Last
week, we spent an afternoon at the nearby beach with our host family. I walked
alone for a while and let my thoughts wander.

       My eyes traced
the shoreline from the distant cliffs to the pearly smooth pebbles at my feet,
rolling over and over in the surf. I dug my toes into the stones and sand,
watching the Black Sea swell and crash. I knew I could walk the length of the
beach and not a single sharp rock would scratch my bare feet. The world has its
way of wearing things down.

       Worn
stones piled up in my thoughts, and I was reminded of every World Heritage site
I’d ever visited: Angkor Wat, Chiang Mai’s withered monasteries, the Coliseum,
Westminster Abbey, the ruins of cathedrals around Paris and Lyon. At each of
these sites, I’d been disappointed to see large sections of the structure
covered in scaffolding and green mesh. It ruined the illusion of anything
standing the test of time, of being able to take part in the abandoned mystery
of those ancient stone walls. The world has its way of trying to restore
things.

    

  my team and our host family, watching the sunset

He
has said so many times in His word that He makes things new. So I asked the
Lord, “What does it look like when YOU rebuild? When YOU restore ancient
ruins?” What came to my mind in that moment was this:

            the
end scene of Beauty & The Beast.

A line of shining gold sweeps over the
run-down chateau, and in an instant its true beauty and light burst out. The
castle and everything inside it literally comes back to life. In that moment,
I’m sure I heard God laughing with me. He has His way of restoring things.

       Sometimes
I forget that I am a new creation. There is comfort in my sin, however
disgusting it is. Lewis wrote that this is “like an ignorant child who
wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is
meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” But I’m even more ridiculous-I’ve been given
the holiday at the sea. Yet I still sometimes mope around in the rooms of my
heart as if they are still full of cobwebs and fallen beams, the ugly
brokenness of my past.

       The
truth is, my heart has not been that for a very long time. Darkness and
brokenness have no place in me. I am a new creation. I am a source of light and
restoration in a world that wears itself down. What my heart looks like now is
this:

       “I
will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli I
will make your battlements of
rubies, your gates of spiraling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.” – Isaiah 54:11-12

The reconstruction of our hearts is taken
care of, but we are still in process. Paul tells us to “be transformed by
the renewing of our minds.” When we are with Jesus, our hearts are pure
and our souls are saved… its our thoughts and perspective that need work for as
long as we walk this tattered earth. Human wisdom tells us one thing while our
hearts know the truth. Human wisdom reminds me of my past and says it defines
me. And when I reach into my heart for the truth, God uses a fairy tale to show
me that, by no effort of my own,

            I
AM ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL AND NEW.

I hope you realize how amazing this is.
Human wisdom says that “things naturally move from a state of order to a
state of disorder.” But everything about LIFE flies in the face of the way
science says the world works. In a world where things do wear down despite
constant repair, we have new mercies every morning, hearts that grow more and
more beautiful, and Love that never fails.

-Katie