MANGLED EARRINGS

By Joni Earckson-Tada

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

I once was wearing a favorite pair of gold earrings, which were large and square with a smooth shiny surface. While I was on the telephone, one fell off. When I backed up my wheelchair, it wasn’t on the floor. I wheeled into the hallway to look for someone to help me, and immediately I felt a clunk-clunk. The gold earring was impaled on my tire. My friend plucked it off, but it was a mangled mess.

I asked a jeweler, “Sir, could you please make the crumpled earring look like this nice one?” He rubbed his chin and replied, “Lady, forget it. But I can make this one,” he pointed to the smooth earring look like your smashed one.” It was an option I hadn’t considered. After a few minutes of hammering, I had a unique designer original: a pair of crinkled gold earrings that reflected even more light than before!

When God allows hammering and hurting, He is proposing to transform us into something new and different. Like those earrings, we are the same, yet poles apart. Best of all, we are better; we are closer to reflecting the light of Christ because of our weakness. The jeweler at the mall could turn a flawless earring into a mangled one, but only God can take a mangled life and change it into a life that reflects the flawless perfection of His Son, Jesus Christ. One day the hammering process will cease and we will perfectly reflect the image of our Savior.

Someone has said, “God ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects.” In what way have your hopes or dreams been smashed? Agree with God to hold on to His wisdom and grace through the hammering. It’ll be a change for the better.

Lord Jesus, I believe You are transforming me into someone more beautiful, more complete than if I had never experienced pain. I trust you with the hammer!

Blessings, Joni and Friends.