Marks. There are many sorts of marks made on life by us and by us by life. Some are eloquent writings by the hands of those gifted by God, some are beautiful paintings by masterful hands, still others are notes that drop out of the inspired soul to cheer us all. Others are mud pies for the dog, scribbles on scraps of papers that must be cherished, tangled threads that someone tells you is a scarf. And don’t forget the scars, the burns, and the breaks.
Soft and vulnerable as we are, we will not exit life unmarked. Yet soft and vulnerable as we are, we all want to leave our mark. My children do – they make drawings, yes they do draw real pictures. But sometimes, I ask what is it? And I am told in an off-handed remark “Oh, just a scribble.” The fear of leaving life unremarked seems inherit in that statement.
Don’t you too find yourself doing things gratuitously, with the hope that someone will notice or that somehow what you did will last; that you will have left your mark?
What if we put our lives in God’s hands and let Him shape us and mark us? And once there, what if we let Him guide our markings = what if we took ourselves out of the equation and let it be His words, His art, His music? I bet it would hurt. We are soft and we have allowed ourselves to be marked by things we should not have ventured near. We are vulnerable and we are not what we ought to be. He would have to pound out all the marks and reshape us. It would hurt. It would be beautiful.
"Don’t you too find yourself doing things gratuitously, with the hope that someone will notice or that somehow what you did will last; that you will have left your mark?"
ReplyDeleteThe answer is yes. I think I realize now that with time, everything that somehow makes me earthly important will pass in time. With very few exceptions, history forgets. But God does not.
Excellent post.
I find it interesting how I, the clay, shout out to God about how and what I want to be obivious to the fact that I am just a powerless blob. It would hurt, and yes I think it would be beautiful.
ReplyDeleteKrina
Yes I do that too.
ReplyDeleteWhat if we put our lives in God’s hands and let Him shape us and mark us?
Made me think of:
"let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." Galatians 6:17 (trusty Bible Gateway helped me out in the finding of)
Jesus has left His indelible mark on us...never to be forgotten. I find it interesting that Jesus still had the marks of the nails even after resurrection.
I realise you perhaps weren't thinking of going down this road of thought, but I just had a little wander myself ;)
Hugs.
"...with the hope that someone will notice ..."
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't this, what on-line journaling is? :-)
And is that so bad?
Do we have to have no say in our lives?
Does everything in life, have to be directed for us?
What is left of us, if this be so?
I know, I shouldn't share this here. I should continue to keep such thoughts to myself.
Sorry..
Mari-Nanci
The last two paragraphs speak so directly to what I am grappling with lately.
ReplyDeleteIts got to be by the prompting of the Spirit. Its got to be that "still, small voice".
great post. i will ponder what it looks like to move from our own gratuitous creations to those that are from the hand of God--His words, His art, His music.
ReplyDeletei hope there is room for some co-creating :-)
Beautifully said! Reshaping by the Master never stops and does indeed hurt sometimes. I have learned that the more I can embrace it and yield to it, the less painful it is and the more beauty I can see. On the other hand, the more I resist, the more brittle I become and the greater the pain.
ReplyDelete