Seashells

We made a last minute trip to the beach this past weekend.  The girls wanted one last time to jump in the waves and dig in the sand before the weather turns cooler.  Although Saturday started with a few showers, by lunch time all the traces of rain was gone and the day was gorgeous.  I cherish these memories, because I know time is moving fast.

On every beach trip a hunt for seashells is always something we look forward to.  I am a little bit of a neat freak, as some of you know, and I have had a hard time bringing home these "treasures".  What do we do with the little reminders of the beach trips of the past?

My oldest daughter, who very rarely got into trouble as a toddler, did try to eat a shell when she was about eighteen months old.  It scared me so bad.  I was in ultimate panic mode. After talking with the nurse at the ER, and finding where she had actually spit out the jagged piece, I put all the shells in a bucket and out of reach.  The broken shell bits went into the trashcan and I seriously thought we should never pick another shell up...never ever again!  But by the next summer, my heart had softened and we went hunting in the sand again...with a new rule.  Only whole shells.  No bits and pieces.  No thin, almost ready to break shells.  No shells with a jagged edge.  Only complete and pretty shells!

As I was looking over the few we brought home this weekend, a small thought went through my mind...

Aren't you glad God does not have the same rules?

What if He only wanted the whole and complete people?  What if only the top-notch people could come to Him? Where would that leave me?

I am the farthest from whole and complete.  I feel broken everyday at some point in my day.  I mess up.  I let myself down.  I let others down.  I feel like David in Psalms 31:12b, "I am like a broken vessel."   What could God do with a broken person like myself?

He can use me...if I am willing!
He can teach me...if I will listen!
He can save me...if I accept it!
He can make me whole...if I come to Him!

And thankfully I can come to Him.  Thin and ready to break.  Already broken.  In a million pieces.

He will make me whole.  He will make you whole.

We just have to come to Him and He will take us just as we are!

Today's Verse
"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite (crushed) spirit." Psalms 34:18

When I feel like those crushed shells being beaten by the waves of life, I must remember He is by my side.  I can come to Him in my crushed state and He will put me back together. He loves me for who I am...and He makes me whole.