Beautiful Mess - Listen and Experience God in Your Chaos
Updated: Oct 16, 2021
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him" - John 9:3
Our life starts with a beautiful mess, a mess when two souls fall in love with each other and lost in each other.
Once we are born, we begin a journey with an uncertain tomorrow, full of adventures. Though we plan, we often run into unforeseen obstacles and make mistakes that may lead us to a totally different destination.
How do you feel, when you are hosting a wedding for your daughter and you planned it a year ahead but something bad happened in the middle of it? This happened in the history of Jesus' time. A rich man held a big wedding for his son and he invited Jesus and Mary and all friends and neighbors. In the middle of the wedding, the wine ran out, he got so nervous and people whispered, "There was no more wine". What an awful chaos at such a wedding! Mary, the mother of Jesus, got to know this and she rushed to Jesus and said, "You have to help them."
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” - John 2:1-10
It's an awkward mess when the weddings run out of wine. But Jesus took the mess and turned it into a beautiful mess - he made the best wine from water, performed the first miracle in his life.
Life is a beautiful mess. It is like a jigsaw puzzle full of pieces of massive events and moments where beauties are hidden behind within each individual piece and revealed only when the final piece is placed.
When my daughter was 7 years old, she received a Christmas gift, a jigsaw puzzle with 1000 pieces in a box with a beautiful picture on it. The beauty of the picture ignited my daughter’s enthusiasm to work on the puzzle. However, because the work was so tedious, so boring, and there were so many pieces which took so much time to figure out which piece went where, several times my daughter just wanted to give up. I encouraged her to persevere and promise to frame her masterpiece once completed. With the encouragement and as the revealed beauty of the puzzle came alive with each piece she placed, my daughter finished the masterpiece. and it's still hanging on the wall of our house.
Sometimes in life, especially in the darkest times, life is like a jigsaw puzzle without its future picture and no hope is revealed, we can easily become despair. If we hold on it and wait patiently for God to intervene, hope will shine through then we will comprehend life's beauty as a whole and learn valuable lessons.
In September 2003, I suddenly felt something wrong with my mouth when I just walked out of a restaurant then a terrible headache attacked me. By evening, I could not talk and I could not close my eyes. And my right face did not function at all. Nervously my husband brought me to see a doctor and we were told I got bells-palsy which is temporary facial paralysis. All of a sudden, my life was in a painful chaos. I lost my smile--the smile I have been so proud of before. My eyes were sensitive to light, I could not work with computer and had to stay at home… almost 12 years have passed, my face has not yet fully recovered. Though I have not seen much blessing from the life trial, I believe that this will be one of the brightest pieces in my whole life picture God made. I learned nothing belongs to me if it’s not from God’s grace including my simple smile.
Life is a beautiful mess. YES, life has all kinds of problems, challenges and hardships. Yet, it is through life's hardship that we experience God's grace, gain wisdom and grow strong and live out the best. Our life is no longer only wrapped in a bud instead it blooms to its fullest and shines brightly.
My dear readers, you may now experience some kind of chaos in life, lost job or love ones, a broken marriage, rebellious kids or pains from diseases or any kind of difficulties, you name it. No matter what problems you are facing now, do not lose heart because God can turn scars into sparking stars, tears into rainbow, broken pieces into colorful gems, the mess will turn out to be a beautiful mess in God's hands and the mess will demonstrate the glory of God through your life.
May you grow to your fullest!
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