A Burnt Stone

I love this story in the Bible. The one about Nehemiah.  He finds out his home and city have been destroyed by fire.  I love how he goes back and faces the devastation head on, and  decides to rebuild the wall. There is a part of this story where people were mocking him and said "  Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble--burned as they are?"  That scripture really got me thinking...YES, YES, YES!!!!When Nehemiah started to re build, he did use stones that were burned.  They might have been scorched, they might have been forever marred and even misplaced on the ground, BUT they were still able to be placed in the wall.  They had not lost their original purpose, design or ability to function.

Sometimes in my own life I feel kinda like one of those burned stones.  I think to myself, "Will I ever be useful?  Can God still want me?"  I look down and I see that I bare the marks of flame.  My appearance has been altered.  Once I had the smooth surface of a beautiful stone now I am scorched black,  and have several chips and gouges... sometimes i can still smell smoke. 

When I look back and see the times of fire, as painful as they were, and as much as I would have liked to change my outcome I know now that God had a plan.  He has always had a plan.  Even when I sat amongst the rubble and refused to be moved because all I saw was devastation, He still loved me and patiently waited for me.  Even when I didn't have faith to believe His promises over my life, they were still true.    

Even though I have a different appearance, Now I have come to love the scars of fire. I have such a compassion for burnt stones.  Now when I meet someone with scars and I see their pain, I want them to know that YES, YES, YES, There is a place for them in the wall and that God still has a plan for them and always will.