Acceptance – Part One

“You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”

“I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.  For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.  God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance.  Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”  Genesis 45:4-8

When trials hit, our lives are often turned upside down.  What once was, is no more.  We mourn our loss, we wonder how we can continue, and we are anxious about both the present and our future.  In our frustration, we often focus on survival and the disruption of our plans rather than godliness.  We think that knowing what God knows will help…that somehow our small finite minds can adequately evaluate the vast, all knowing mind of God.    In the end, if we are honest, acceptance is really about giving up control.

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Clay Pots

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.  Ephesians 2:10

Producing art, whether for functional use, the sheer beauty of it or some combination of the two, takes effort and skill.  In my youth I used to tool leather.  I made belts, purses, bible covers, etc.  Some projects were from kits, others were on pre-cut pieces and the remainder were those that were started with a piece of tanned hide.  Obviously the latter required the most effort in that I had to decide what I was making, its intended purpose, its shape, and its dimensions.  From there the cutting had to be precise which was not easy with a utility knife.   Once cut, the leather had to be moistened to keep it pliable to that the stamping and carving could be done properly and evenly.  After being tooled it had to be died and finished.  Each piece was unique and an investment of time, effort, and creativity.  The process was a very faint imitation of how God has created each of us.

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