On my flight back to Estonia I've been reading quite an interesting novel called "The Shack". It's a story about a man who through life's horrendous difficulties struggles with issues of forgiveness, love, and trusting God. It's a gut wrenching story, albiet a few ideas presented in the story are a bit unothodox and difficult to digest at first, but the theme of God's love and grace comes through clearer than any i have read in a long time.
Like this man, we all go through unexpected struggles in our lives. Loss of family, friends, jobs, posessions, forms of abuse, some stuggles more difficult than others. These difficulties leave wounds and scars, tissue that may turn into layers of hurt, regret, bitterness and unforgiveness. These are defence layers we create to protect ourselves from being hurt again. It often causes us to be shallow and superficial, not allowing our relationship with God and our fellow person to grow deeper. We run the danger of having our hearts turn calloused, or as scripture so well describes into "hearts of stone".
This book so well described how God can start peeling away those calloused layers and restore within us a "heart of flesh". I kind of picture it like peeling onions. The first layers are not so bad, usually thin and died up. Not much pain involved until you get to the third or fouth layer. The deeper you peel, the less dry the layers are, the more fleshlike our hearts become. Funny thing with onions, the peeling usually comes with tears. God wants to give us a heart that is sensitive and true. A heart full of compassion and grace.
And it all starts with a little peeling below the surface...
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