Beautify your Boulder!
By Helen Jesze, 22nd May 2020
I read about a man who had a beautiful house and garden, but he was not satisfied, because there was a huge boulder sticking up in the garden. The colour and perfume from the flowers, fruit and trees meant nothing to him, while the unsightly boulder was still there. The bottom of the boulder went quite deep into the ground, and he tried many ways to get rid of it. Nothing worked, and he even tried to blast the boulder out with dynamite, but it did not budge. He only broke the windows of his house! This problem became an obsession until one day he died, disappointed and bitter.
The man who inherited the house had seen the former owner’s efforts, so instead of trying to eradicate the problem, he decided to make it work for him. He had colourful frescoes painted onto the boulder and planted ferns, small flowers and trailing creepers into its crevices. Brown, orange and white lichens clung to its hard, grey surface, and soon the creepers began their covering work.
The ugly eyesore became a thing of beauty, the focal point of the garden! When visitors came, it was this they wanted to see, exclaiming at the man’s ingenuity and the amazing attraction the boulder had become.
Every one of us has one or more boulders in their life at some time. Some are boulders which can easily be removed, some will be removed at a later date, some which no amount of effort or prayer seem or even can remove. What could some of these be?
The Boulder of Trouble, Grief or Loss
We may have experienced deep, ongoing trouble or lost a loved one. 2 Corinthians 1, 3-5 reads:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” NIV
In our heartbreak, questions and despair, God has promised to comfort us, but only if we plant His presence and His Word in our hearts and direct our cries to Him; if we refuse to allow this to make us bitter, if we hide ourselves in Him in the darkness of our night and give our bleeding heart to Him to make something beautiful out of this ‘boulder’ we cannot deal with. The closeness of His arms as we are held to His heart will cause His comfort to seep into us and envelop us. It is this comfort which the Apostle Paul writes about here. If we never went through anything, we would not know God’s marvellous comfort, and have little to give to the broken-hearted.
The Boulder of Regret
Some things we regret we can never change. People and satan love to constantly hold up our shortcomings. Disappointment threatens to overwhelm us and make us feel it is not worth trying again. The Past cannot be changed, but if we allow the Holy Spirit to show us the root of the problem and allow Him to change our hearts, the Present and the Future can look different. The flower of forgiving ourselves and others will take root and spring up, we will have a greater compassion for others who have the same problem, and not be so quick to point the finger at them; humility – because we have put away our pride and admitted our wrongdoing – will beautify our boulder in a quieter way, with not gaudy but muted colours, yet with a sweetness all its own.
The Boulder of Abandonment
“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up,” Psalm 27, 10.
Many people know the pain of being abandoned by one or both of their parents, but children or close friends can also abandon us. Here the Psalmist says God will step into that pain and bring healing and support where we need it.
The Boulder of severe Disability
Some people born with a severe disability have been healed by doctors or the power of God. But I am thinking of somebody like Nick Vujicic, who was born without limbs, just one tiny foot. Born into a Christian home, Nick struggled with the huge ‘boulder’ of why this should happen. Yet the day came when he made the quality decision to put his life completely into God’s hands and allow Him to ‘beautify his boulder’. Today Nick has a beautiful wife, 4 healthy children, and is an international speaker and author, inspiring millions of people worldwide. There are many other types of ‘boulders’, but these are enough for now. Let’s pray together:
Dear Heavenly Father, show me by your Holy Spirit the ‘boulders’ in my life which I have not clearly seen yet, or those I have turned my back on and refuse to acknowledge, hoping they will disappear if I deny their existence. Show me if there are things that need to be changed in my heart or thinking, which have caused them to come or to have a great hold on me. Help me to acknowledge wrong attitudes or sin, cleanse me in your blood, Lord Jesus, change me into the image of your Son, Jesus Christ.
And for those ‘boulders’ which can never be changed, help me to lay down my anger, frustration, bitterness and grief, and I ask you to – in time – make this part of my life beautiful, as only You can! Your Name is my Strong Tower, I run into it today! Thank you Father, I give you praise, in Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen!
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