Beauty beyond the ruins
TFTD: Beauty beyond the ruins
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
This weekend I was cleaning my kitchen and the Lord gave me a Saturday cleaning revelation that I wanted to share with my blog family.
I began sweeping our kitchen floor and realized how dirty it was around the corners. I have a Swifter jet, which I love, but I noticed some tough stains on the floor would need more attention. The Swifter was great for surface cleaning, but not deep cleaning. In the areas that had heavy traffic, I noticed deep dirt and grime. On the surface it looked like the tile was ruined. I got a Brillo pad, a bucket of hot water, liquid Lysol and a rag. I proceeded to get on my hands and knees and began scrubbing with the rag and Lysol mix. I first started in the corners that the Swifter couldn’t reach. I used the Lysol mix and rag, which worked well for the corners. I then proceeded to that tough stains. I had to pull out the Brillo pad and give it some elbow grease. The Brillo pad pulled the dirt and grime up. I then took the Lysol mix and rag and wiped up the dirt and finally went over the entire thing with the Swifter. It was then that I uncovered a beautiful tile. Floor that at the surface looked ruined was BEAUTIFUL like new.
While I was scrubbing, God reminded me that some things in our life are only surfaced cleaned (Swifter-represents self) we try to clean things, but we only clean up a few things. Some areas we can’t reach in our own strength so we ignore them. When we ignore the hard to reach areas, it allows the junk in our lives to pile up and begin to show through. Maybe our attitude changes, maybe our physical appearance begins transforming, perhaps our faith begins to decline. This unattended area in our life gives the appearance that we are ruined. Those issues that we struggle with daily leave tough stains in our life. They are so deep that we think we no longer have value. It’s not that we are ruined we just need some deep cleaning. We need to get on our hands and knees (kneel to pray) and go to God (the Brillo pad) to scrub the dirt up off of us. And because we have so much dirt in our life it will require some elbow grease. When God begins scrubbing us it will hurt and be uncomfortable, but HE is always with us. He will even send God-fearing people along side of us to help clean us up (Lysol mix and rag) they will encourage, pray, and hold us accountable. They will help reach those tough spaces we’ve ignored in our life.
We should always go to God first. Allow Him to lead us to the right people. The more we go to God the more we will begin looking and acting like Him. When we allow Him to go deep beyond the surface issues to cleanse us and allow great people to guide us along the journey, finally, when we do the surface cleaning, we will see how beautiful we are. We weren’t ruined, just hidden beneath the ruins. Only God is able to pull out our true identity. We have to go beyond the surface.
Everything He made is beautiful. Allow God to unveil who you really are.
God bless!
Mrs. Nicole “Sunshine” Ellis, MBA
Can’t breathe: Try Spiritual CPR: Consistent in praying, Persistent in pursuing the knowledge of God, and Resistant to temptation.
Sunshine's Reflections Blog 