When I think of cracks, this image usually finds its way into my mind. I see lines and sections of the dirt split into arid and crusted clusters gasping for water.So far this week, God has been showing me these cracks.
There is a certain beauty that even cracks and imperfections can form and that beauty is well captured in this photo I found. God has shown me this beauty in myself. When I can acknowledge and accept that these cracks are there, the beauty of grace and mercy flow through and shape the core of who I am becoming and the painting of this masterpiece God is creating within me. I am able to approach God and gain intimacy and love even with these obvious cracks and imperfections within my character.
I realize everyday how messed up I am. How much I lack in self control and how much I compensate with baseless pride. This word and concept, pride, embodies the struggle of man striving to have a relationship with God. In just five small letters, pride covers all our shortcomings; all our idols; all our monuments; all our masks; and all our excuses that we hold on to in an effort to cover up our sinfulness. But that pride has no weight, it has no base for it to stand on and becomes the house on the sand and falls away easily to the storms of the sea.
When our pride falls, we are left uncomfortable and in painful anxiety without a foundation to fall back on. Thus we seek more and more houses; more and more monuments and idols to fill our bags in preparation for the times when our temporary pedestals crumble beneath us just to fill that void with yet another temporary support.
I think that's why it's so hard for us to surrender. We feel that uncertainty and painful anxiety for the unknown when we don't replace the crumbling support with yet another temporary structure. We are afraid of the fall into our sinfulness that is so repulsive to us that we would spend the rest of our lives in search for a permanent replacement, blind to the fact that there is no permanent support that will lift us up. We are so afraid of the depths we fail to realize that there is nothing there but love and mercy from God the Father personalized for each of us. We have to reach down into the depths of our sinfulness to fully get a grasp on it. It will always be out of reach even if we reach down while hanging on to our earthly supports. So God demands that we let go of our earthly pride and fall down into a permanent foundation that will never fall away.
Did you know that the reason why the dirt cracks is due to dehydration? All you need to do in order to fix those cracks is to pour some water back into the land and it will become smooth and perfect. Imagine what will happen to the land when the life giving power of the Living Water of Christ is poured out upon the land.
I know that God has been pouring and I've been accepting, and transformation has been a constant and obvious part of my life. Imagine what would happen to you if that water was poured out and accepted into your own desert of cracks.
