There is Cedar in all of us!

I have been watching the house up the street from us being transformed. It is currently under a major remodeling and makeover. The entire house has been gutted and each day as I drive by, I can see the transformation happening right before my eyes. This week, the house got some beautiful cedar wood siding put in place. It is gorgeous mixed in with the stone front.

As the workers labored the other day, I noticed the pile of lumber stacked by the house. I also noticed that each piece of lumber was selected carefully before being hung. I couldn't stop thinking about that beautiful cedar wood; how each piece was delicately and carefully selected for this remodel job. Lumberjacks would tell you that the strongest wood usually comes from the trees that have weathered the roughest storms and conditions.

I suppose you could say the same about people. The strongest people that I know are that way because of the strong winds and battles they have endured. Look at Moses; if you could ask him how he became the great man that he was, assuredly, he would remind you of his trials with Pharaoh and the testing that the wilderness days brought him. How about Joseph? Surely his great power and position did not come easy, Joseph had to go thru the pit and slavery first before he saw great things.

Just like that cedar wood, that passed thru all of the inspections to be considered the best and just like Moses and Joseph, God is using the the bumps and the rough edges in us to perfect us to be used for something great!

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)

I don't know what kind of remodeling or transforming that God is doing in you, but I guarantee you that the rough stuff, the hurts and the troubles that you feel, are the very things that will give you strength for where you are headed.

BLESSINGS. Laurie