A large part of the last three years of my life have been spent thinking about and discovering what is now my favorite thing about God - Redemption. He is Redeemer. I can't begin to describe how much I love that about Him. And maybe it takes really discovering the depth of your fallenness ~ I mean really getting down into the deep, dark pit of our depravity ~ before you can be, just, stunned by His redemption. Because until you see how hopeless you are, you can't fully appreciate that He somehow takes that mess, and turns it into something beautiful.
Redemption is like a mosaic. It takes the broken, jagged, hopelessly shattered pieces of something, and uses them to create a masterpiece so much more beautiful than the original creation. It is pain and hurt and sorrow turned into healing and strength and joy.
When everything looks hopeless, when I've messed everything up so bad I can't even figure out where I am or sometimes who I am anymore - then He takes it all and weaves it into this thing of unspeakable beauty. And it just leaves me amazed, without a single thing to say. He is so much bigger, and this story of my life that is unfolding is so much better, because He is constantly working redemption throughout it. When I fail, when I don't seem to have enough to give, when I really did try my hardest but still everything falls apart - I can just beg Him to redeem it all, to somehow bring good and beauty and glory for Himself out of it all...and He does, because that is who He is. Beauty for Ashes. What an incredible God.
We knew it as a wrong turn
We couldn't know the things we'd gain
When we reach the other border
We look out way down past the road we came from
Looking at redemption
Hidden in the landscape
Of loss and love and fire and rain
Never would have come this way
Looking at redemption
In the eyes of sorrow, eyes of rage
What a sordid histories they played
The drama of redemption
Redemption
"Redemption" - Jars of Clay
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