By Josie Siler

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Is that really a Van Gogh?
 
I hurried over for a better look. Sure enough, “Van Gogh” was written on a piece of masking tape stuck to the frame, confirming what I already knew. It really was a Van Gogh! Never in my life did I imagine I’d find a beautiful Van Gogh print at a small town rummage sale. Granted, this was a huge rummage sale, but still.
 
It didn’t take me long to decide if I would purchase it. I wasn’t totally sure what “it” was. Obviously it wasn’t on original, but beyond that I’m in the dark. Is it a print? It is a reproduction? Is it good copy by some random person? I don’t know, but it’s beautiful!
 
I knew that I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t buy it. I checked my wallet and had exactly the amount of the print – plus $2. That was enough to buy the print, a gluten-free monster cookie, and have a dollar to spare. Done!
 
When my dad helped me hang the picture we talked about the high quality framing job. He told me that the piece of glass on the front would cost more than what I paid for the whole thing. Now that’s the kind of deal I like! The picture looks incredible in my house and will stand as a reminder of God’s love for me.
 
Really? Blossoming Almond Tree is going to remind me of God’s love? It sure is! You see, I almost didn’t make it to the rummage sale that day. After almost three years of treatments my health is so much better. I had a huge breakthrough a couple months back and just as I was starting to notice how well I was feeling I caught a nasty virus. I’ve been really sick for the past several weeks and I just can’t shake this thing.
 
It’s. So. Frustrating. 

I feel like a limp rag that somebody forgot to wring out. Sweats and chills fight for control as my body tries to kill of yet another attacker. I’m so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. I’m supposed to be better, yet I feel so sick. In recent weeks my time with the Lord has suffered as I haven’t had the energy or motivation to open my Bible. I’ve been weary physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
 
The day of the rummage sale I probably should have stayed home, but I talked my parents into taking me to check it out. I’m so glad I did because God used one not so little painting to teach me a lesson.
 
I’ve always liked Van Gogh’s work, especially when you take into account his short and difficult life. He suffered heartache, loss, and illness. From what I can tell from a brief online search, he started painting about 10 years before his death. Ten short years to create a lifetime of masterpieces.
 
Vincent Van Gogh died at the age of 37, only a few months after he painted Blossoming Almond Tree as a gift to his newborn nephew, Vincent. It was while he was ill that Van Gogh painted some of his best work. According to www.vggallery.com this painting is “a delicate study of hope and renewed life.”
 
Every time I look at this beautiful picture hanging on my wall I will remember who painted it. I’ll remember a man who, like me, suffered with illness, experienced heartache and loss, and found the only thing he had left to cling to was God.
 
Each time my eyes pass over the priceless masterpiece hanging on my wall I’ll be reminded that God sees me as His priceless masterpiece. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) tells us that, “…we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”
 
Let that sink in for a minute. You, my friend, just like me, are God’s masterpiece. You are a priceless work of art. Unlike the print, or reproduction, or copy hanging in my living room, you are an original! There’s no one else like you and you have great value. We each have great value.

You might be feeling like me right now – sick, tired, weary, frustrated, and even angry. But we need to remember not just who we are, but Whose we are. We belong to the King of kings, the all-powerful God who created the universe and us!
 
I may be able to say I have a Van Gogh, but you know what? God can say that He has an original Josie Siler and an original [insert your name here]. He’s proud of us. He did a good job when He made us. He doesn’t make mistakes. We’re His masterpieces, created anew in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.
 
Are you ready? If so, take the first step with me and open His Word. Let’s read about His love for us and His plan for our lives. Let’s talk to Him, tell Him how we feel, and accept His compassionate love.

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

I was raped when I was eight-years-old. I know when we talk about young children being hurt we prefer to use the word “molested.” It sounds nicer – less painful – but truthfully, molestation can simply be inappropriate touching. I wasn’t molested; I was raped, and it nearly destroyed me.

I’ve never admitted this before, but being raped is what led me to asking Jesus to save me from my sins at the young age of eight. I knew I was broken, wrecked, dirty. Although I couldn’t explain it, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my life was completely shattered and I needed a Savior. I needed someone bigger than me to pick up the broken pieces and make me whole.

It’s been a difficult journey. I wish I could say becoming a child of God instantly restored what one senseless act of violence destroyed, but it didn’t. There have been times it’s felt like I was crawling through broken glass just to move forward. It’s been hard, always thinking I’m unworthy of God’s loving patience. Yet He’s never given up on me, even though He has had to restore me piece by piece.

But that’s what God does. When He looks at us He sees us, not for what we are, but who we can be. He doesn’t just see the failed marriages, broken families, the lost and damaged soul. He sees beauty in the broken, life in the death. Even at our very worst, He wants to restore and make us whole.

Yet we forget that. We become so focused on all that we aren’t – the depravity of our lives – we forget what Jesus did for us on the cross. For so long, I believed I was the black sheep of God’s family, that He loved me because He had to, not because He wanted to. But in doing so I forgot something vital – God is Lord of all and nothing can make Him do what He doesn’t want to do. God doesn’t love us out of obligation. At any time, Jesus could have removed Himself from the cross. He had the power, but He chose to stay for you and for me.

We are all broken, wrecked, dirty. We are all unworthy to stand in the presence of a holy God. Ephesians 2:1,3 says, “You were once dead because of your failures and sins. We did what our corrupt desires and thoughts wanted us to do. So, because of our nature, we deserved God’s anger just like everyone else.” Yet despite this, God loves us anyway. That’s why Jesus willingly died on the cross. He wants a relationship with each of us. He wants to make us worthy.

Ephesians 2 goes on to say in verses 4-7: “But God is rich in mercy because of His great love for us. We were dead because of our failures, but He made us alive together with Christ. It is God’s kindness that saved you. God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with Him. He did this through Christ Jesus out of His generosity to us in order to show His extremely rich kindness in the world to come.” 

God knows us. He sees the truth of who we are – the flaws, failures, imperfections – and He loves us anyway. His love for each of us is greater than we can ever begin to fathom. He wants to take the time to put us back together piece by piece. He wants us to be whole.

I’ve lost count of the number of times someone has told me God can’t love them. Their sins are too great and their lives too broken. Every person’s story is different. Some are similar to mine and they’re trying to recover from a rape or a brutal crime. Some have committed adultery and destroyed their families. Some were alcoholics or drug addicts. I’ve even met a few people who were victims in sex trafficking. What I’ve discovered is no matter what our story, we all struggle to a varying degree with the fact that we’re unworthy of God’s love, and Satan likes that! He wants us to focus on our brokenness, rather on who God says we are despite our failings.

Instead of being so focused on how unworthy we are, we need to remember that Jesus makes us worthy. He is greater than our past mistakes. There is never a person too flawed for God’s redemption. Even the greatest villain is redeemable because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

By Josie Siler

One of the first things I noticed was the massive amount of cacti. I couldn’t believe how many shapes, sizes, and colors a cactus could come in. There were cacti coming out the wazoo and they were beautiful! I was on vacation in Arizona and this Wisconsin girl was smitten by the ruggedly wild beauty all around me.
 
It didn’t take me long to notice something important – so important that I immediately wrote a note reminding myself to write about it when I got home. What was this great revelation? Broken cacti. I was intrigued by the numerous large cacti being held up and reinforced by ropes and strong pieces of wood. I have to admit that I wondered why anyone would bother. There were so many cacti and it must have been a prickly job to try to fix them.
 
Throughout the week I spent on vacation I learned a few things and came home with a new appreciation for the saguaro cactus. Saguaro cacti are the tall, iconic plants that live in the desert of southern Arizona. As the cacti get older they grow branches, or arms, that typically grow toward the sky. It takes an incredibly long time for cacti to grow their recognizable arms. They grow straight and tall for at least 75 years before they start to grow their first arm, often longer. They’re not fully grown until they’re a couple hundred years old! 

Because they’re filled with water, they’re incredibly heavy. A full grown plant can grow to weigh over a ton. Incredible! It’s no wonder this plant is so highly valued. Because it’s so valued there are strict rules in place when it comes to cacti and other native plants in Arizona. If you get caught damaging any native plant the punishment could be a class four felony and up to almost four years in prison.
 
Since the water-filled cacti are so heavy, sometimes a section will break off. Instead of disposing of it, if at all possible, it’s saved. If caught early on it can be grafted back onto the plant. If it’s too late for that, the broken part can be replanted to grow as a new cactus. I saw bandaged cacti that left an impression on me.
 
If I took one thing away from my trip to Arizona it was this: broken cacti are still highly valued. A cactus may be broken, but great care will be taken to support and reinforce it – to heal it. It’s kind of like us and God.
 
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like a broken cactus. When my sickness takes over it’s easy to become hopeless. I think of Job’s words in Job 17:11 (NLT), “My days are over. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken.” There are times when I feel like that. I’m broken; my good days are over; my hopes have disappeared; my heart’s desires are broken. I think that if this is true, God might as well throw me out.

But you know what? God highly values me. He highly values you too. I may be broken, you may be broken, but we’re priceless in His eyes. Psalm 147:3,5 (ESV) tells us that “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. … Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.”
 
God understands our pain, yet He doesn’t want to throw us out and start over, He wants to heal us. He wants to bind up our wounds, grafting us into Himself or replanting us and helping us grow again. This is a beautiful thing, and it’s going to leave a scar. Grafting causes a scar, a visible wound around the healing. Replanting leaves a scar on either side of the broken piece, a visible wound around the healing.
 
But here’s the thing, scars are beautiful. Scars scream “Survivor!” and remind the world that we have lived through something incredibly difficult, yet we’re still here. We’re overcomers and our scars prove it. Physical scars, mental scars, emotional scars – we’ll probably have them all. But the scars mean we’ve healed. In time the scars can grow smaller, but they’ll always be there. They’re there to remind us of what we’ve been through, of the battles we’ve won.
 
So if you’re broken, ask God to heal you and bind up your wounds. He’ll do it, and you’ll be able to stand tall and strong and proud, like 200-year-old saguaro cacti – the kings and queens of the desert.

By Erin Elizabeth Austin

Control freak. It’s a phrase that applies to the majority of us. Granted, we don’t like to admit to it, but very few of us are okay with just sitting back and allowing something to happen in our lives without our input. So we do what any good person would do. We excuse it; we say it’s our personality to take charge. We even give it a fancy name and say we have a Type A Personality, yet what it boils down to is the need to feel like we’re in control of our lives.

Interestingly enough, I don’t have a Type A Personality. All the tests show I’m a Type B, which means I’m laidback and easygoing. Although this is true, I still struggle when my life doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to. When doctors say they need to run more tests on me and try a new medicine, the desire to fight back and change what’s happening to me rears its ugly head. When a bill comes in the mail and I wonder how I’m going to pay for it, I have this innate ability to make plans to rectify my financial woes even though nothing I’ve tried in the past has worked. When my friends and family are hurting because of something bad that’s happened to them, I immediately want to swoop in and fix everyone’s problems. It’s the control freak in me, and it’s something we all struggle with.

Still think you’re not a control freak? Do you ever worry? Do you ever feel anxious? Do you ever wonder how you got into the mess you’re in and what you need to do in order to get out? I hate to break it to you, but that means you have the makings of being a control freak. Some of us have that tendency more than others, but it’s still there – the desire to take charge and fix the wrongs in your life.

But there’s a problem with this, something I’ve only started to realize after thirty-two years of living. Although being in control makes me feel like I’m doing something to fix a problem, it limits God in what He can do. It’s saying, “Don’t worry, God! I don’t need your help. I’ve got this!” In essence, it’s saying we don’t trust God and we can do a better job than He can. Blasphemous, I know! No one would ever dare say that to a powerful, almighty God, yet we indirectly do it on a regular basis.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve daily been drawn to one of my favorite psalms – Psalm 37. It’s a psalm that’s infamous for the promise found in verse four: “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” That’s a promise from God we all love. It sounds amazing, but the problem is we tend to stop reading at this point and we miss everything God says afterwards. Yet those verses are the most crucial. Verses five through seven say: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.”

As I studied the original language in which these verses were written, I realized that we really miss something in the translation. Many of the words and phrases in these three verses aren’t used anywhere else in Scripture, which tells us that what God is saying is extremely important.

​The phrase “commit your way” actually means “to roll it over on.” While that’s intriguing in its own rite, verse seven is where it really gets interesting. “Rest in the Lord” is better translated “to sit/stand silently.” And then comes the part that blows my mind. “Wait patiently” literally means “to whirl or dance.” If you put it all together, a more accurate translation of Psalm 37:5-7 is, “Roll your troubles onto God; sit or stand confident that He will work in your life. And in the meantime, dance.”

God wants us to dance. He wants us to rely on Him to take care of us, to intrinsically know that no matter how bad a situation becomes, God is in control. He wants to work in our lives, but we have let go of our need to be in control. We can’t have it both ways. We’re either a control freak, or we choose to trust God. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being in control.

I want to dance! Do you?

​“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1,4