“For if anyone be in Christ, you are a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

My final semester as an undergraduate in college was spent attending school in a little town called Nantes, on the West coast of France. Traveling to Nantes from the bustling streets of Paris on the train was like traveling back in time. The lush green landscape of the Loire Valley seemed a peaceful throwback to another era when life was simpler. However, I could not help but notice the scars of the past as I passed through the villages. The stone on one side of a five hundred year old church was aged but smooth as if it had known nothing but peace and tranquility. The other side told a different story as it was filled with pockmarks from the ravages of war. One entire section revealed a much newer stone that had obviously been replaced leaving a scar in its wake where it met the original stone. Yet even in the repair there was a beauty to the old cathedral. Age had not diminished its effectiveness to keep the wind and the rain from the parishioners, nor its grandeur as a love testament by its builders to God Almighty.

The scars stood as a testament to fortitude

So how’s your life? Scarred? Bruised? Have a few cracks here and there in testament to having been alive? God has a miraculous way of patching us up and making us into a beautiful mosaic. “For if anyone be in Christ, you are a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17