Sunday, January 31, 2010

My dearest God,

You are the great revealer, bringing to our minds the power to change, to transform. O God, do you remember how I loved diagraming sentences in high school, separating out the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs? I always enjoyed that simple but complex at times exercise.

This morning while I lay praying before dawn you took me back to school. I stood beside myself as a teen seated at my desk. I watched myself move my paper around as I dissected a sentence identifying all its parts.

From there you led me to a scene from Extreme Makeover. In Buffalo they deconstructed a rundown century-old home. They literally took the house apart saving each piece to be used to help fix up other old homes. Then they constructed a new home over the old foundation.

What you made transparent to me this morning was the deconstruction of a story, my own and how it is you have helped me transform my story. You pointed me to a story in my life. Already written with all its parts, I was able to see how I interpreted that story to myself. Then you helped me take the story apart, laying aside each part, each piece. Next you spoke another piece of the story from a differing perspective. You showed me how I could add that to my story. In other words you assisted me in reconstructing my story. It changed it. It looked different. At that point you did something more. You spoke a word of power, a divine word, your word; you added your power to my story, changing the story one more time. Only this time, what a story it was, a true story of transformation.

Today I learned how a story could be changed, bringing healing and hope to the storyteller. I watched with great interest as you rearranged all the pieces in such a way as to tell the new story, a story of redemption.

Almighty God,
is there anything
about which
you do
not care?
You take
the hurting things
in our lives
and you
remake them,
weaving into them
bits and pieces
of hope,
love and goodness.
Better than new,
you disclose
your loving power
to save,
to redeem,
to make new.
What do
I say
to all
of that?
What can
I say?
Words are inadequate
to express
my heartfelt praise.
This morning
I am loving you
for your
extraordinary grace.

Love, Andrea