The Hidden Message of the Shells
Exotic sea shells carry a powerful message. They are extraordinarily beautiful. The God who made the stars made it so sea slugs–not too unlike garden slugs–make them from calcium carbonate-protein layers secreted from cells on their backs. It’s back art– that they can’t even see. Astonishing.
However, even more amazing is the hidden reality they reveal; that the God who created the moon, the sun, the earth, us–and all that is–is a God of inexpressible beauty.
Job had things hit from the outside that hurt him–things that scared him and scarred him. These things were not from the God who made him. And so it is with all of us in this life. But, Romans 8 carries perhaps the most powerful reality ever given regarding difficult and confusing events; God Himself promises to cause these negative things to work for our great good– if we let Him.
Job did allow God to do what He desires for each of us. He stayed true to God. He refused to be bitter toward God. He believed that somehow God would turn everything around and give him beauty for ashes. And– at the right moment–God began His supernatural restoration.
I had something crash into my life a little while back. It was quite difficult. I knew that Jesus said that in the life we would have trouble. (John 16:33) I also knew that He said regarding these troubles, to “take courage, I have overcome the world.”
I knew how this tied into Romans 8:28 where God said He would take everything that happened to me and MAKE it work for good. I knew the story of Joseph, where Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and Potiphar’s wife accused him falsely of raper and had him thrown into prison. I knew how he refused to be bitter toward God and instead trusted Him to work everything for good. And I knew what God eventually did for Joseph and how God worked an incredible miracle and MADE it all turn into something beautiful for him and others. (See Genesis 37-52)
I knew all these things and knew I needed to trust God and walk through this valley with Him, not against Him. I did. Slowly day-by-day, I saw the Lord begin to work as I did the next right things. Eventually my road led to the most astonishing and beautiful happenings that I have ever experienced. I saw by personal experience that God brings beauty for ashes. (Isaiah 61:3)
Job also had God give him beauty for ashes when great trouble stormed into his life.
Two soul-staggering events are recorded in Job 42. Job said regarding God Almighty, “Before I heard of You, now my eyes see You.” This is a very real, very profound experience we will always experience if we follow the God of Creation through life’s experiences–good, dull and hard. Somehow something incredibly deep happened inside Job and he experienced the infinite Creator in ways far more powerful than he ever had before.
Secondly, Job described in some of the most penetrating words in the Bible. You’d think that out of ashes would come more ashes. But God gave profound beauty for ashes. Job said it this way: “I spoke of things I did not know, things too WONDERFUL for me” (Job 42:5) . Job asked God to teach him how He works in time and space and to teach Him more about Himself. He did. God showed him exceedingly wonderful things which had never entered his thoughts.
Look to the God of all Creation in the issues you face. Listen for His whispers. Don’t let a day go by without taking time for Him. Bring every detail to the Shell Creator and let Him be strong for you and work things too wonderful for you and give you unexpected beauty for ashes!
