But this planet proved to be a bitter and cold place for the most part.  Little real warmth or security was found here, but there were plenty of prickly thorns that wounded and stabbed your innocence.  The ravenous hunger for love and acceptance gnawed a deep crater in the core of your heart.  As time went on, the light that had attended your birth began to dim.  You found yourself tripping and stumbling in the darkness, falling in the mud and causing black smudges on the Master’s perfect creation.  If only you had been attentive and more cognizant of your actual value, then perhaps you could have escaped those ugly, dark blotches that soon marred the Artist’s handiwork!  How could you have been so reckless, so blind to the ruinous consequences of your actions?  What was initially meant to be an illustration of perfection instead hangs as a tragedy on display.

I fail to see what can be done to restore this damaged and worthless piece of art.  Looking in a mirror, I view only wreckage, with little hope of repair or recovery.  Then, in a moment of clarity, the voice of the Holy Spirit spoke to my soul and reminded me of Jeremiah 18:4:  “He was using his hands to make a pot from clay, but something went wrong with it.  So he used that clay to make another pot the way he wanted it to be.”  (Expanded Bible, EXB)

There is HOPE!  Restoration IS possible!  Now I stand before the mighty throne of God’s limitless grace with hands held high in praise and surrender to the Author of my existence.

The jubilant message of Isaiah 43:18 & 19 rings in my spirit:  “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”