I was honored this morning to be a part of a brief activity at our local elementary school. Our small town boasts one of the only heart-shaped labyrinths in the world. When we moved back, it was in the planning phases and now, almost ten years later...wow...it is a destination place for a variety of events. We talk about God's timing and trusting that He will bring all things to good - sometimes this takes years! Moses wandered the desert for my entire life span. The artists and committee who designed the "Heart In The Park", have been working on a project since that first brick was laid and now, ten years in the making, it is progressing toward fruition.
Every year the first grade class and new students in upper grades are asked to put their thumb print on a clay heart and decorate it any way they wish. I watched all those little hands press into the soft, damp clay, determination on their young faces, and each one turned out exactly the way they wanted and no two were even close to being alike. They wanted to know where clay came from? How it got shaped like that? How it gets changed in the fire?
Those little clay hearts are very much like our own hearts. Each one has been imprinted on differently, has taken on its own identity, and is so soft and pliable when we are young and creative. Then somewhere along the line, perhaps, bit by bit, we are hardened by the experiences. The fires we face transform our heart into something a little more akin to stone and we don't even realize we are sitting in the kiln. Where do we come from? What shapes us? How will we react to the fire?
What God worked on me today is that even hardened hearts are beautiful. Even hardened hearts have a place in the bigger picture of this project known as life. They are etched both with shallow and deep impressions; no mark is exactly the same as another. Every heart has a story to tell, perfectly crafted by the Master Artist, and may take ten years or more to put the final piece in place. What one views as an "Oopsie," someone else is saying "Perfection!"
Romans 11:25 I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters, so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.
This verse adds to my current hope. Hardened hearts only last until the time is right, and at that moment, it is not ours to be proud of. God is in the lucrative business of changing hearts and has perfected His technique. His refining could take hours, days, or years depending on the size of the project. We all start out as clay in His capable hands and become crafted into something that he sees as "Perfection!"
Mark 3:5 He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." So the man held out his hand, and it was restored.
It is really hard for me to know how to approach hard hearts; to help begin the restoration. But, there is comfort in knowing that Jesus was sad and even angry at their stubbornness. I realize that it is my job to authentically present the love and joy that can be found in Jesus, not church, but in Him alone. He will take it from there. I visit with many people whose hearts are hardened towards the church -please know that Jesus never intended for the church to be what it has become. Let Him, not religion, work on your heart. I would be happy to give you His business card.
One little guy asked me, "what if I move?" My response was, "you always have something to come back to to call your own." A little piece of heart in every project we have ever been a part of, coming together shape by shape, scratch by scratch, and scrape by scrape. The hardened heart has a story to tell...peek into the kiln and find the beauty that is revealed.
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