I'm like a bird...

Remember when we started our study on She's Got Issues? I offered Melissa a cup of coffee, and she turned me down. I tried adding half & half, sugar, whipped cream, chocolate syrup and caramel syrup and she still said no. Melissa doesn't like coffee; no matter what I added to it, it was still coffee. When I instead offered her hot chocolate, she gladly accepted.
In her book, Nicole Unice talks about how she thought life with Jesus would be sweet and couldn't figure out why her life wasn't any different than the lives of her neighbors. She found out that Jesus offers so much more. He doesn't just add sugar to our current situation but transforms our lives.


This morning I was walking down the hallway and saw this picture:

It blew me away. Two completely unrelated things and somehow one transformed into the other. What Jesus offers is so amazing! He isn't just changing us from one hot beverage to another. He completely changes us. Paul says this: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬ ESV). Total transformation. He changes us so significantly that the old looks nothing like the new.
Or even more amazing, something that was dead becomes alive. A bell to a bird. "even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved" (‭Ephesians‬ ‭2‬:‭5‬ ESV). Dead in sin, alive in Christ.


If you only looked at the middle two images, you'd think the artist was terrible. They are weird, confusing, ugly, misshapen, lumpy and at least the one is unrecognizable. It's hard to imagine what the artist is thinking when you just look at them. Seeing the images all together we see the transformation; the middle two images make sense because they are part of the process. We don't judge the art by the middle two images, we see the whole picture.
In your life do you ever wonder what God is doing? You feel ugly, weird, confused, broken, misshapen, worthless. Do you wonder what He could possibly do with your life? Don't just look at yourself in the process and forget about the whole picture. God can take our messes, our pain, our brokenness and make something beautiful out of it. In Isaiah 61:3, it says He will make beauty from ashes. Let God transform you and use your life as a testimony to others.

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I love when I can see God in normal everyday things. How has He shown Himself to you lately?