It's Beautiful

It's been awhile, dear gatherers! I know that you guys know that our life, as well as our blog, has been a little bit heavy, lately. Despite this, I feel like I know that, we need to focus on the beauty of God that is constant. Even throughout our hardships and struggles, through the midst of our cries, God is good.

 God turns mistakes to miracles. God can will take this job loss and turn it into something beautiful. This past summer my dad and I had the opportunity to go to NYC with my youth group for a missions trip. While there, my dad shared his testimony at a soup kitchen. I will admit, nobody seemed very receptive (well, one guy did, but he also looked a little crazy ). Afterwards, while helping to cook the meal, a man that had listened came up to my dad and asked to talk to him.  Through this job loss, my dad got to inspire and share his testimony with a homeless man in New York. CRAZY!!

It's so easy to get caught up in the worries of money, but God specifically commands us to do the opposite! "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes." (Luke 12:22-23) Don't worry about material possesions or where the necessities will come from. The birds are fed, the lilies grow, surely God will take care of us.

I've been doing this bible study in school called "Live Abundantly: A Study in the Book of Ephesians" (By Lenya Heitzig & Penny Rose). Here is an excerpt from today's study: " Pearls are the product of pain; an oyster that hasn't been hurt does not grow a pearl. When the shell of an oyster is pierced, a foreign substance-usually sand-gets inside. When this happens, the oyster's cells cover the grain of sand with layer after layer of nacre in order to protect the soft body of the oyster. The result is a beautiful pearl." Jesus is a treasure-maker. He makes us and our lives into treasures. One of the biggest mistakes of a Christian's mind-set is believing that this process can happen either without Jesus or without pain. Both of which, is false.

We will endure hardship. We will suffer and cry out to God in our breaking-point. But, we cannot forget that he has a plan. We can't forget that his love endures forever and he won't abandon us. The coolest part is, this pain is a part of his plan. He'll use it to strengthen us and use it to bring Him glory!

~Jessica