Hidden Treasures!

One of my favorite movies is National Treasure. I promise I can watch that movie over and over and never grow tired of it. I’ve always been a fan of world history and hidden discoveries and treasures. I get so captivated in how something that looks so ordinary or even rundown on the outside can hold some of the most beautiful treasures ever known.

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. ---2 Corinthians 4:7

As I did my morning devotion, I came across a scripture that captured the same thing. And it made me think of something, well something else besides the fact that National Treasure is one of my all-time favorite movies. But it made me think back to when I was a little girl. I used to create fantasy worlds all the time in my backyard, in my tree, or wherever I felt at the time. I used to go on “treasure hunts” trying to discover something new. I did this to escape the terrible realities of my own world. But the one thing I didn’t realize, at the time and even through a great deal of my adulthood, was that I had a hidden treasure within me! Those treasures came in an unattractive form though…abuse, neglect, rejection, and a host of other things. I know what you’re thinking, how in the world could something like abuse possibly be a treasure? I know, I thought the same thing!

#CoffeeMomentofTruth: Diamonds aren’t beautiful upon discovery, but instead rather unattractive to the eye. They are covered in layers of dirt and mineral debris. If one doesn’t know any better, it could easily be passed up and chalked up as just another hunk of earth.

As I grew older and gave my life to Christ, He showed me how He can take even the ugliest of things and make them into something not only beautiful but useful. My sister, please listen, what you possess inside of you is far greater than anything you and I could ever senselessly pursue. I know every story looks different and it carries a different level of pain with it, but trust me when I tell you that God has use for it ALL. He does not waste anything…let me say that again, He does NOT waste anything. What looks tore up and raggedy to us is of the highest value to God. Why? Because when He takes that broken, used up, and abused woman and transform her into something amazingly beautiful, not only does He get the glory, but this transformation shows another broken woman that her life and all its troubles are worth it.

I don’t say this because it sounds good. I say it because I WAS that broken woman. And I carried many shattered pieces around with me until God allowed another restored jar of clay to enter into my life and share her testimony with me. Ladies, God says that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the words of our testimony (Revelation 12:11). So that means that terrible divorce you went through, He can use it. That abuse you encountered, He has use for that too. That sex addiction, drug addiction, self-abuse, whatever it was that you and I try to hide so intensely, please understand that our Father, God, has use for it.

It’s through our willingness to be transparent that allows us to be made whole AND becomes the catalyst to another sister’s healing. I want to end with this, our lives and experiences are not just for us. They are beautifully connected to the needs of other women. When we make the decision to share in our sister’s pain with the testimony of our own, though we are fragile jars of clay, God will allow His light to penetrate with the fullest of force. Be blessed and encouraged today beautiful women!