Silhouettes

She asked me if I saw them, the popsicle sticks.

"Oh dear," I bemoaned, "I threw them away."

Yes, they were laying on my computer desk, all drawn and colored into handsome little men and women.  Painstakingly detailed.

I often sneak some of my children's work into the trash when they are not looking.  I just can't keep it all.  These projects are old and forgotten, things they never ask about.  But horror of horrors, this was recent, left for me to admire and treasure.

In my frantic rush to declutter the house, I mindlessly threw them away.  

I am so glad God never considers our lives as clutter!  He wastes nothing.  No experience, no long lost trial, is ever thrown away.   Forgiven, yes.  Erased by God, yes.  But the maturity gained from the experience grows us into beauty, etched on our lives in silhouettes.  (Providing we do not kick and scream against the chisel.)  All is used to form us into who we are today, His work of art.

I cannot wait to see the finished product, that moment when God stands back and sets us on display.  Right now we are still a work in progress.  When at last we receive our new bodies, all this beauty will shine out from within.  It will illuminate like a lantern.  And the patterns seen bright and clear will be full of variety, for the journey God has taken each of us is uniquely ours.

We are not the same people we were yesterday.  Praise the Lord for that!

We're getting ready for glory...