God is making something beautiful from your stony countenance, friend. He’s using suffering to refine your character, so don’t give up!
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with another hymn—an old hymn, one that I would sing as a little girl. Maybe you know it, so join me, would you?
Face to face with Christ, my Savior. Face to face, what will it be?
When in rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me.
Face to face I shall behold Him, Far beyond the starry sky.
Face to face in all His glory, I will see Him by and by.
Oh, on warm summer days like these, I think of all the times my family and I went camping on the beach near Rehoboth, Delaware. You cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, take Route 50 through the eastern shore, pitch a tent at what used to be Keybox Camp just north of Bethany Beach. For us, we’d camp at the beach for not just a couple of days, but for a couple of weeks and we had all sorts of things to keep us busy. We’d spend all day in the ocean on our rafts, then head up to the Lewes Dairy in the late afternoon for ice cream, fry fresh, soft-shell crabs on the Coleman stove that night, and the next day do it all over again. My favorite part was collecting shells and stones along the beach, especially the small, perfectly round little stones washed up by the waves. The constant tossing of the water and the polishing from the sand made for the shiniest, smoothest, most round stones.
My sisters and I had contests to see who could collect the most flawless stones. We liked these stones because we would lay them out on a wooden picnic table, pull out our paint sets, and paint faces on all these smooth, round rocks. Stones that had any sharp edge were tossed aside. It was the flat ones that had been refined and polished; these were the ones that made the perfect surface for painting colorful, happy faces. Oh, that was so many years ago, but I’m reminded of those smooth rocks with smiling faces whenever I read James 1. It says there that the testing of our faith produces real character. Oh, friend, my affliction with this disability and all the day-to-day irritations, all of it is like constant polishing, refining, always honing and shaping and smoothing and shining and filing off all the rough edges of my character. It is a tiresome process, but I am convinced that God wants to paint the smile of Jesus on this stony countenance of mine. Like it says in 2 Corinthians 4, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
Do I always smile? Well, if you looked at all the newsletters at Joni and Friends, you’d say I do; and yes, you probably hear the smile in my voice, right? But I will be honest there are times when the bite of my quadriplegia coupled with pain have me looking into the mirror in the morning with a groan. “Oh, God, I don’t have the strength … please help me!” Friend, yes, I’ve got a long way to go. And you do, too. But I am willing – and I want you to join me in being willing today – to welcome those trials as friends (can you do that?!). It has everything to do with your character; everything to do with refining and filing off the rough edges. Everything to do with God painting something beautiful on your countenance.
© Joni and Friends