The Master Jeweler
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you…And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 5:6-7, 10-11
Back in January the tip of one of the prongs holding the diamond in my engagement ring broke off. Worried that the diamond would fall out, I took the ring off and put it in my jewelry box until I could get it fixed. It sat there week after week, month after month…broken.
At first I missed the ring, but I soon convinced myself that it was in the safest place (totally disregarding the fact that it was in the most obvious place a robber would look and that our neighborhood had been having a rash of brazen daytime home invasions). After a while, I got used to not wearing it and liked the look of just my wedding band. In a sense, the broken engagement ring missing from my finger became a part of “me,” the same as my chewed finger nails, my crooked smile, and my playing with my hair at stop lights. I would even tell others about it, as if they really cared! Until finally, getting it fixed didn’t seem too urgent. After all, it was still there, sitting in the jewelry box, safe.
My husband asked me on several occassions when I was going to get it fixed. Each time there was an excuse and a promise to not keep putting it off. But still it sat.
Why was I so hesitant to take it to be repaired? You see..I didn’t trust the jeweler. I did not have the surety that the diamond I took in to be repaired would be the diamond I would get back. I didn’t want to be cheated, lied to…conned. How would I know if he slipped a lesser diamond in the setting, or even a cubic zirconia? By keeping my ring in the jewelry box, it may be broken, but it was still safe…still mine.
How often have I considered God in the same light as that supposedly untrustworthy jeweler? How often have I kept a tight grasp on circumstances, hurts, confusion, bad theology, and many other things that should have been laid at the feet of God? How often have I not trusted or submitted to God because I was afraid of being cheated, lied to, or conned into something I didn’t want? How often have I questioned His reputation, His character…His trustworthiness? How often have I deceived myself into thinking that by holding on to my brokenness and storing it in the “jewelry box” of my soul, I was keeping control over it…keeping it “safe?” After all, wasn’t it “safer” that way than the unknown reality called “being healed”? And because of this, how often have I settled with being broken instead of submitting myself to Him to be healed?…Too often.
I finally got my nerve up and took the ring in to be repaired last week. Upon examination, the jeweler remarked that not only did that one broken prong need to be rebuilt, but that the other prongs were too thin and weak, as well, and needed to be strengthened. If he fixed the broken one, but not the others, I risked losing the diamond anyway. The jeweler took my ring behind the glass wall and began an overhaul work on it. I pretended not to be watching him like a hawk by hiding behind a book. After a few minutes of this I realized that I couldn’t just sit there for the next hour watching every move he made. I chose to trust him. I removed myself to the customer lounge area and waited until he was done.
The ring the jeweler returned to me was not only rebuilt, but strengthened and cleaned, as well. And, it was brilliant! The sunlight danced through the prisms and bounced rainbows across the walls.
So it is with God. When we trust Him with our circumstances…if we let Him fix our brokenness…if we allow ourselves to be rebuilt…He is not only faithful to heal us and rebuild us, but He will also strengthen us and “clean us.” Then we will shine with His light as it bounces throughout the prisms of our life, casting rainbows of hope and promises for others to see.
And what of the Master Jeweler himself? God in His holiness and in His perfect love is incapable of cheating me, lying to me…conning me. He won’t switch my “diamonds” for cubic zirconia fakes. Instead, He takes my “diamonds” and repairs them, strengthens them, cleans them, and makes them far more valuable than a broken one sitting in a jewelry box. We can trust in His reputation and in His character. He can be trusted to be faithful and good. God is a God of love and longs to lavish each one of us not only with His love, but with His healing power, to use each circumstance for our good and His glory, to make us whole…to make us shine with His light…to give each of us a promise and a hope…If we trust Him.
My engagement ring is back on my finger, where it should be. And slowly but surely, my circumstances, my hurt, my confusion, my bad theology, my brokenness…all that I hold on to, is being taken out of the jewelry box of my soul and laid at the feet of a trustworthy, loving, faithful God…where it should be.
Abba, Father,
Thank You for Your lavish love. Thank You for Your understanding of my questioning, my hesitation, my doubts. and even my anger. And in Your compassion, You still patiently pursue me and draw me to You-to a place of rest and of hope and of promise. Thank You for Your trustworthiness. Help me to lay at Your feet all that is broken, all that needs to be repaired, all that needs to be rebuilt, strengthened and cleaned. I trust in Your faithfulness and Your goodness. Let me shine with the brilliance of Your light.
In Your son, Jesus,’ precious name, Amen.
Watch the Women of Faith’s Worship Team sing “Trading My Sorrows (Yes Lord)” by Darrell Evans:
