In Fair Colours

How many times have you heard quotes regarding the picture-perfect Proverbs 31 woman?  That flawless woman – intelligent, virtuous, trustworthy, wise, hardworking, strong, dignified, generous, kind, caring, encouraging.  She seems to be incapable of any transgression, any careless or inconsiderate word, any blemish…

But this week I heard several women talking about the difference they wanted to make in the lives of other women – and why they want to do that.  They were united in their purpose and motivation for their ministry:  to be an instrument in God’s hand to bring healing where the enemy has stolen from other women what he has also stolen from them.

I think so many women would be able to identify with the woman described in Isaiah 54:6, “a woman forsaken, grieved in spirit, and heartsore”.  Women that has been refused, rejected, not good enough, not woman enough, be it from divorce, from childhood hurt, from financial troubles, from barrenness, from loss, from trying to be 100% employee plus 100% mom plus 100% wife…  Well, I have been there.  I have felt pain piercing my heart, incapacitating me.  I have felt how the days get fuzzy and I forget simple everyday things.  I have also felt how God lifted me out of that horrible pit and pulled me close to His chest, holding me tight.

God intimately cares for us heartsore women.  He says: “With great compassion and mercy I will gather you to Me again” (Is 54:7) and “With age-enduring love and kindness I will have compassion and mercy on you” (Is 54:8).  “For though the mountains should depart and the hills be shaken or removed, yet My love and kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace and completeness be removed, says the Lord, Who has compassion on you.” (Is 54:10)

None of us can escape the difficultness of life.  We live in such a broken world, corrupted by the schemes of the devil.  But God is with us in the thick of it, not letting us go, fighting with us and for us.  God covers us in His love.  As we lay our hearts down at his feet, in vulnerability and openness, He covers the hurt caused by our own sin as well as the hurt caused by others’ sin with His love (1Pet 4:8).  When we lay ourselves bare before Him, He can bring healing and beauty out of the ruins of life.

“O you afflicted city, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in fair colours – in antimony to enhance their brilliance – and lay your foundations with sapphires.  And I will make your windows and pinnacles of sparkling agates or rubies, and your gates of shining carbuncles, and all your walls of your enclosures of precious stones.” (Is 54:11-12)

I love how God says that He will set our stones in antimony to enhance their brilliance.  Out of the contrast of life, God creates so much more brilliance and beauty.  Out of something that once looked like ruins and destruction, God creates structure and beauty and peace.  It is in the hard times in our lives when, if we let Him, God pulls us closer to Him.  In that place of total dependence on Him, He molds us to look more like Jesus and He redirects our paths.

“Behold, I have created the smith who blows on the fire of coals and who produces a weapon for its purpose, and I have created the devastator to destroy.  But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong.  This – peace, righteousness, security, triumph over opposition – is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced, this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me, this is that which I impart to them as their justification, says the Lord.” (Is 54:16-17)

You and I have been created so masterfully, se perfectly, so Proverbs 31– woman-like.  He has created such beauty in us when He crafted us and the enemy wants to blemish what God created flawlessly.  I am an Isaiah 54 woman, a woman that’s been grieved in spirit and heartsore, but that is being made beautiful by the living God, my Creator, day by day.  He has a plan for me, He has a purpose for me and He has a calling for me and I pray that my life will bring glory to His Name.

[Collage created using Pinterest images]