The Amazing Light of Grace

Our scrapes and cracks can allow the light of Christ to shine through in beautiful ways.

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to make my own hand soap. I had read about all the chemicals in store bought soap and I wanted to give it a try. I went and bought some mason jars because I have been trying to use more glass than plastic. I painted a bunch of them with different kinds of paint and I put them to use holding the soap.

But, I made more than I needed and one was left unused. I don’t know why I didn’t pick that one, but I didn’t and so it sat on a shelf in the pantry.

Then I decided I wanted to make candles. I Googled it, read a bunch of articles, bought the supplies and talked my hubby into helping me and we made a batch. As I was searching for different vessels to use, I came upon the one left over from my soap making extravaganza.

I had painted it with latex paint and when it dried, I lightly sanded it. I don’t know why. I’m not particularly artistic or crafty. I just didn’t want it to look new or perfect, like it had just been purchased. I wanted it to look like it had been around a little while and had seen some action and use of some sort.

I took the jar and we poured the wax and waited for it to harden. The next day when I finally got to light it, I was delighted.

All of the sanded places in that jar allowed the light to seep through and the effect was beautiful. A perfectly painted, unscratched vessel would have never produced that kind of light.

I like to light that candle when I write. It reminds me of the beauty that can come from just traveling around the sun year after year. We may be born close to perfect, but every year that goes by causes scratches and cracks in our hearts and souls. Some come from our own bad decisions and some happen to us through no fault of our own. Sometimes we can even completely shatter and we wonder if we will ever be whole again, but we always have a choice on how to proceed.

We can remain shattered in the darkness or we can choose another way.

If we are people of faith, we can surrender all of the pain, anger, regrets and mistakes to Jesus and ask for forgiveness if we need it and redemption and He will help. He was a carpenter after all and He can rebuild even the most badly broken people. We won’t be the same. We won’t be unblemished. We will still carry the scrapes and cracks, but the beautiful thing about the light of grace is that it shines even more brilliantly through the cracks than it ever did before they were there.

Our past makes us who we are and no one is beyond redemption.

Isn’t grace amazing? A candle reminded me. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂