"So, what does it do? It marks the place of boundary. It holds a place a value. It is a guide. It helps show the way in. There is another board at the front of the garage holding another place of boundary, resting just on the other side of the front tires. Without these boards, as small and insignificant as they may seem, we would have some serious damage. These two boards are strategically placed in our garage to set the boundary for whoever is driving the vehicle as they maneuver it carefully into the garage... Therefore, it is crucial the two seemingly insignificant boards remain in their pre-determined placement. Otherwise, things will go bad quickly!!"
As I penned these words this morning, God was shaping within me another illustration about these boards. In my spirit I heard, "just like you." I stopped for a minute to make sure I was writing what I was supposed to and I felt I was. There were two lessons to be learned from my boards. Here is Lesson Two...
Not only do these boards represent guides in our lives, but they can also be a lesson inward....us as a board. Just as we can see those boards as boundaries and or guides for us, we too, can be that guide or boundary for someone else. It goes both ways as "iron sharpens iron." We live in such a "Me Society" and when you couple that with our selfish nature, we tend to filter life through the lens of how does that help or affect me rather than how does this implicate me.
I have always struggled with my value, my small self, my seemingly insignificant self. And yet, like these boards, while marked up, scarred, and tethered, each holds a crucial placement in my home. I, too, small and seemingly insignificant was given a pre-determined placement for such a time as this. I don't have all the answers to my own life, much less anyone elses, none of us do, but I know that we were created with a purpose. You and I were placed here, today, in this place, with all we have and don't have physically, emotionally and spiritually, for a reason. We have value. On our own we are nothing but with Christ our Strength, Reason, Purpose, Redeemer, we are crucial to His Home. By His grace, if "iron sharpens iron" then despite our scuffs and splinters, jagged edges, we are special, with purpose, and each hold a crucial place. By faith, we are built solid and sure!
Maybe you are one of those "boards" and you already know how important and valuable you are, recognizing your preciousness. Good, may you be the iron that sharpens us who are weaker, to see our value. To encourage our hope. To stand in the gap where are greatest cracks are.
God has created us to be solely dependent on Him as we also live in community, many parts of one body, each recognizing our crucial part and learning how to encourage each other in Love's sweet Name. Pray today and ask God to not only give you guides and boundaries in your life, but that He would also show you how you are that same guide and boundary of hope, encouragement and love in the lives of those around you. There are no mistakes in the House of God! Everything has been pre-determined from the beginning of time....including YOU!!!!!
"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing...And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle,encourage the fainthearted,help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone."
I Thessalonians 5:11, 14-15
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