The prized stained-glass window of a European cathedral was shattered during a winter's tempest.
The sexton collected all the pieces and stored them away in a large box in the cathedral's crypt. Two years later a famed artisan, passing through the area, heard of the accident and saw the boarded-up window. He took the box from storage, worked in secret, and skillfully reset every bit of colored glass into a design of his choice. On Easter Sunday, the window was unveiled. It was an image of the glorified Savior, far more stunning and beautiful than even the original window.
The Lord takes all the shards of our circumstances and uses them to form an image of Christ within us so we might reflect His character and rejoice in His goodness…. He does it because He cares for you. He loves us freely and He loves you deeply.*
Let's remember and sympathize with Job:
Job 16: 11-14
11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.
13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.
14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.*
How often do I feel like Job did? How often does it seem God is shaking me, breaking me, has shattered me, and is delivering me into the Enemy's hands? Listen to Job's initial response to his God-given trial:
Job 1:20-22
20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. (emphasis added)
And, in the end of the story – look how Job again speaks to God:
Job 42:1-6
1Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
And because Job had the right attitude and sought to worship the Lord in the midst of what appeared to him as the breaking of his life to shards, God blessed him and honored him.
Job 42:10-12
10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
11 Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
12 So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning:
May the Lord grant us grace, to accept each breaking as a gift from Him, to worship Him in the midst of it, to humble ourselves to His design for our lives, and to reflect His glory so that all may see and honor HIM!
___________________________________________
Robert J. Morgan, The Promise (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2010), 113. All Scripture is KJV unless otherwise noted.