Rough Seas Yield Beauty

You have kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights, each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book. 

Psalm 56:8 MSG

Oooo, run, grab it, uh oh, the water is sweeping it away! Got it! Oh Wow, a beautiful lavender piece!

Walking at the very edge of the water on the beach, I just cannot stop myself from looking for sea glass. Those beautiful shards of broken glass that are valued and much sought, only after they have been churned, scrubbed, battered, buffeted, and sanded, by the sea, surf, sand, and rocks.

A piece of smooth and unbroken glass has no value for the sea glass maven. There is a jeweler on the East Coast who makes the most beautiful sea glass jewelry that is 

highly valued and highly priced. She has her secret area of the rocky coast where she places the new, smooth, unblemished pieces of glass for the churning surf and sand to turn it into jewelry material of much value.

God uses the churning, sanding, harsh times and trials of our lives to bring us into that Christ-likeness that He values. In His hands, those hard burnishing times can make us into valuable jewels in His Kingdom and for His Church. God does not waste one of our tears, nor, one of our trials. Out of our harsh times come spiritual fruit, godly reverence, righteousness, and ministry to others.

Are you in the churning surf of a trial now? No pain, no tear, no toss and turning sleepless night will be wasted when you give it all over to our Divine Artistic God.

Claudia Jackson