The Kaleidoscope of my Life

Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you,  

will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Being fashioned and shaped into Christ's image is not easy.  I have come across some who have this fairytale view of Christianity in that they believe once they become a Christian, life is easy going and there won't be any troubles, sicknesses, pain, etc.  The day that there are no troubles, sicknesses, pains, etc. we will be in heaven. If I work hard to avoid suffering or run from God during the suffering, I am only hurting myself.  I am missing out on experiencing God and His power and strength. It's the suffering that strengthens my faith and trust in God.  It's the suffering that shapes me more and more into Christ's image.  Paul W. Powell once said, "God is more concerned about our character than our comfort. His goal is not to pamper us physically but to perfect us spiritually."

This past summer, I read the book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver. There is a section in the book that talks about Philippians 1:6.  The author, references a lady by the name of Claire Cloninger and what she writes in her book, When God Shines Through. 

                      For me, one of the greatest frustrations of walking through the "dailiness" of 

                     my life as a Christian is that I don't always get to see how the bits and pieces 

                     of who I am fit into the big picture of God's plan. It's tempting at times to see my 

                     life as a meal here, a meeting there, a carpool, a phone call, a sack of groceries-
                     all disjointed fragments of mothering in particular. 
                          And yet, I know I am called, as God's child, to believe by faith that they do 
                    add up. That in some way every single scrap of my life, every step and every 
                    struggle, is in the process of being fitted together into God's huge and perfect 
                    pattern for our good. (132)                                                                                                                  

                                    

Joanna goes on to write in her book,

                  Claire concludes that it is those very scattered pieces that God uses to make a 
                  kaleidoscope. Instead of waiting for us to arrive, God shines the Light of Christ 

                  through the fragments we place in His hands, transforming "the disorder into 

                  beauty and symmetry," splashing the colors of our brokenness like fireworks 

                  across the sky. (196)

I don't know about you, but I love that visual, the picture of my life being like a kaleidoscope. All those fragments being put together to make a beautiful display. As I allow God's Light to shine through me, others begin to see that beautiful display of His working in my life.  

Father, thank you for the work You started in my life.  I thank You that You don't stop there, but You continue to work in my life until I reach my journey's end.  I anxiously await the day that I will be made complete, and I will be a beautiful masterpiece.