Damariscotta Baptist Church

 

 

Have you wondered how God is going to make a positive outcome from the pandemic mess we are in today? And then add the divisiveness of humans due to the color of our skin and we don’t even know where to begin to make things right. 

I’d like to share a story I read this week during a quiet time. It’s an excerpt from one of Sheila Walsh’s books, entitled, “5 Minutes with Jesus.” and to be honest, this week 5 minutes a day in His Word was about all I could manage. But sometimes the right 5 minutes makes a big difference. 

The story I read was about the emperor of China. He had a problem. Something was destroying his mulberry tree. Poor emperor. 

As if that was his only major problem, but besides that, like any brilliant man does when he has a problem he can’t figure out: he turned to his wife for her thoughts!

His wife, Empress Ce Ling Shee looked at the trees, and noticed something right away. A moth was laying eggs on the mulberry leaves, eggs that of course hatched into caterpillars. After a few days, each caterpillar spun a thread that it wrapped itself in, forming a cocoon. This is where it gets interesting. The empress plucked one of the cocoons from the leaves and dropped it in hot water. Why she ever thought of doing that? Who knows? But what resulted was amazing. Slowly, the delicate and beautiful thread began to unwind. It was a half mile long when the empress stretched it out and measured it! Then it occurred to her: perhaps this thread could be woven into cloth. 

 

And that is the moment the silk trade was born. An empire of extraordinary beauty and wealth  began with an emperor’s garden disaster and someone willing to try something new with it!

When the emperor looked at the problem, he saw a dying mulberry tree. When the empress looked closer at the problem, she saw a pest. She acted on a whim, or perhaps a nudge from God, and discovered something amazing, and with the gift of creativity, Chinese silk was born. The very thing the emperor saw as destruction became something beautiful and a huge financial blessing. 

Why are we so surprised? Isn’t that what God does best? He is constantly making beautiful endings out of impossible situations. He never wastes a single trial. 

 

When we give our trials and struggles to Him, He transforms it all for our good and His glory, 

1 Peter 1:6-7

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 

There is a bigger picture, beyond pandemics, beyond disappointments, beyond strokes and professional setbacks. Whatever impossible mess this dark and difficult world can produce, God has the ability to turn it around, when we let go and allow Him. God’s redemptive power is greater than anything the enemy can dish out. So we shouldn’t be surprised when the darts of pain and destruction come our way. 

However, we should remember, that when we give God the pieces that have broken from the darts of the world that have hit us, we will be amazed at the redemption that takes place. 

Here is a piece of redemption I experienced this week. I have been staying with my father for the past few days because he had a stroke and needs someone to be at home with him. It seemed the best thing to do, considering the other option was his going to an assisted living rehabilitation facility. Just a bit of history, as a child growing up in the house he lives in, life was difficult. But God redeems.  We were sitting on the back porch the other morning trying to give him some vitamin D as he sat in the sunshine. We were discussing how it was necessary to have someone with him in case he fell and couldn’t get up. He’s an independent New Englander and  explained to me that should he fall he had his cell phone and would call 911 right away. 

I then countered with what if he were to hit his head and be unable to call. Without missing a beat he replied, if I hit my head and I am gone, I will see you there later on. 

He had me stumped. He was right. He was at peace knowing that were he to be gone, he knew where he was going, and I’d see him there later on. Not much to say to that. I responded, “Yup, I will definitely see you later.” 

The discussion ended. We sat in the sun, getting our vitamin D, and felt the peace of redemption. 

Had my father not had a stroke, I would have never had that conversation. 

It’s amazing what God will do with a broken life if you give Him all the pieces. 

Let’s pray.