The Father’s Business – Renewal

(Picture credits at end of post)

The Father’s Business – Renewal

And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49 – NKJV)

The Father and the Son are in the business of taking the cast-off or redundant areas of our lives and re-form them into something of uncommon beauty.

                Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16 – NASB)

…and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind… (Ephesians 4:23 – NASB)

Driftwood

(© September 2010 by Christopher Shennan)

(A poem of free verse)

Just a piece of driftwood; Yet I have seen these random cast-offs of Nature, chosen, re-designed – lovingly re-crafted into objects of beauty – displayed in prominent places and treasured by those still gifted with the capacity to discern beauty in unconventional things.

I have seen them, the cast-offs, rescued from the cruel sea, or the barren beaches – a bird about to fly; a cane re-carved into human likeness; a clock now mounted on a piece of driftwood well-varnished; a unique and unrepeatable treasure.

Just like these drifting pieces, thrown up on the beaches, I have also seen much human flotsam, cast off – ravaged by storms that life has viciously let loose – has cast upon those barren places that seem devoid of Love – undervalued members of the human race.

I have seen this human garbage re-shaped by Love, by instruments sent forth from Heaven’s Heart. These instruments – themselves once cast-offs, but now re-claimed, are fit to work a miracle by God’s own power. They see these rejects, and hold them to their heart, and see them placed once more into Heavens Treasure House, the place where only reclaimed objects of God’s Grace may dwell.

So when I see a piece of driftwood, worn and ravaged by the action of the sea, and cast upon forgotten shores, I remember from whence I came. I remember, too, that I am called, not to the grand designs within palace walls, but to the long-despised alley-ways of life where the dregs of humanity dwell.

Not to these alone am I called, but these are burned with searing iron upon my heart, a heart re-shaped by the Master’s hand. I cannot forget from whence I came, so memory drives me to look with longing upon the broken ones – to see the Master bring them back; to snatch them from the burning flames and bring them home – once again.

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Driftwood sculpture by Heather Jansch. Photograph by Alison Cassidy. Copyright.

CC BY-SA 3.0  (note the disclaimer at this link.) No changes were made to this photograph.