August 15, 2022 8:00 pm
At first glance I dismissed the painting Consider the Lilies by Makoto Fujimura as a simple, monochromatic painting featuring a lily seemingly hiding in the background. However, the painting came alive when I learned it was actually painted with more than eighty layers of finely crushed minerals in a style of Japanese art known as Nihonga, a style Fujimura calls “slow art.” Looking closely reveals layers of complexity and beauty. Fujimura explains that he sees the gospel echoed in the technique of making “beauty through brokenness,” just as Jesus’ suffering brought the world wholeness and hope.
God loves to take aspects of our lives where we’ve been crushed and broken and to create something new and beautiful. King David needed God’s help to repair the brokenness in his life caused by his own devastating actions. In Psalm 51, written after admitting to abusing his kingly power to take another man’s wife and arrange the murder of her husband, David offered God his “broken and contrite heart” (v. 17) and pleaded for mercy. The Hebrew word translated “contrite” is nidkeh, meaning “crushed.”
For God to refashion his heart (v. 10), David had to first offer Him the broken pieces. It was both an admission of sorrow and trust. David entrusted his heart to a faithful and forgiving God, who lovingly takes what’s been crushed and transforms it into something beautiful.
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Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled Crushed and Beautiful was written by Lisa M. Samra. At first glance, I dismissed the painting Consider the Lilies by Makoto Fujimura as a simple monochromatic painting featuring a lily seemingly hiding in the background. However, the painting came alive when I learned it was actually painted with more than 80 layers of finely crushed minerals in a style of Japanese art known as nihonga, a style Fujimura calls slow art.
Looking closely reveals layers of complexity and beauty. Fujimura explains that he sees the Gospel echoed in the technique of making beauty through brokenness. Just as Jesus' suffering brought the world wholeness and hope. God loves to take aspects of our lives where we've been crushed and broken and create something new and beautiful. King David needed God's help to repair the brokenness in his life caused by his own devastating actions. In Psalm 51, written after admitting to abusing his kingly power to take another man's wife and arrange the murder of her husband, David offered God his broken and contrite heart and pleaded for mercy. The Hebrew word translated contrite means crushed. For God to refashion his heart, David had to first offer him the broken pieces.
It was both an admission of sorrow and trust. David entrusted his heart to a faithful and forgiving God who lovingly takes what's been crushed and transforms it into something beautiful. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Psalm 51 verses 10 through 17. You who are God, my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it.
You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, help us to entrust our brokenness to you, believing that in your time you'll transform it into something truly beautiful. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Alisha Reisinger, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread ministries.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-03-10 13:28:49 / 2023-03-10 13:46:06 / 17
