A Pastoral Word. . .
By Rev. Mark Adams
April 30, 2020
In their book, Does God Really Like Me? Cyd Holsclaw and Geoffrey Holsclaw write:
“A transformation by love is on full display at the City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. The name makes it sound like a place to learn about the history of St. Louis, which sounded a little boring to us. But good friends kept telling us we should check it out.
It was not at all what we expected. The entire museum is literally made of junk—the junk of the city transformed into a playground wonderland.
The whole museum is composed of pieces of St. Louis that had been demolished, abandoned, or thrown away as useless. Concrete, rebar, rusty gears, cinder blocks, ceiling panels, broken tiles, shards of pottery, empty beer kegs, broken bottles—all things that had been tossed aside as worthless or unusable. Everything was tossed aside because it didn’t belong anymore.
But the builders of the City Museum didn’t see it that way. They transformed this trash into a beautiful, eclectic playground for children and adults.
One room transforms scraps into a swampland forest people can swing through. Another room is a maze of bank safes and mirrors. Another is full of ladders and slides—one slide is ten stories tall! Outside people can climb high into the air through ‘gerbil tunnels’ made of rebar, into a broken airplane suspended in the air, or onto a dilapidated school bus hanging off the side of the building.
As a family we have spent hours—actually days—exploring the different rooms, finding secret passageways, and delighting in unexpected treasures. And the whole thing is not only fun to play in, but it's also surprisingly beautiful. The whole place is a work of art.”
Of course, the greatest “transformation of love” is done by our Lord. As Paul says in Romans 5:8, “God commends His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners [even though were broken and marred by our sin], Christ died for us.”
As these artists have done with St. Louis junk, God specializes in turning broken people; people who often feel worthless, into objects of beauty and value.
In Ezekiel 11:19 God says, “I will put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old as gone, the new is here.”
In Revelation 21:5 Jesus promises, “I am making everything new.”
Great fodder for marble-moving faith conversations!
Keep the SON in your eyes!
Mark
“A transformation by love is on full display at the City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. The name makes it sound like a place to learn about the history of St. Louis, which sounded a little boring to us. But good friends kept telling us we should check it out.
It was not at all what we expected. The entire museum is literally made of junk—the junk of the city transformed into a playground wonderland.
The whole museum is composed of pieces of St. Louis that had been demolished, abandoned, or thrown away as useless. Concrete, rebar, rusty gears, cinder blocks, ceiling panels, broken tiles, shards of pottery, empty beer kegs, broken bottles—all things that had been tossed aside as worthless or unusable. Everything was tossed aside because it didn’t belong anymore.
But the builders of the City Museum didn’t see it that way. They transformed this trash into a beautiful, eclectic playground for children and adults.
One room transforms scraps into a swampland forest people can swing through. Another room is a maze of bank safes and mirrors. Another is full of ladders and slides—one slide is ten stories tall! Outside people can climb high into the air through ‘gerbil tunnels’ made of rebar, into a broken airplane suspended in the air, or onto a dilapidated school bus hanging off the side of the building.
As a family we have spent hours—actually days—exploring the different rooms, finding secret passageways, and delighting in unexpected treasures. And the whole thing is not only fun to play in, but it's also surprisingly beautiful. The whole place is a work of art.”
Of course, the greatest “transformation of love” is done by our Lord. As Paul says in Romans 5:8, “God commends His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners [even though were broken and marred by our sin], Christ died for us.”
As these artists have done with St. Louis junk, God specializes in turning broken people; people who often feel worthless, into objects of beauty and value.
In Ezekiel 11:19 God says, “I will put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”
2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; The old as gone, the new is here.”
In Revelation 21:5 Jesus promises, “I am making everything new.”
Great fodder for marble-moving faith conversations!
Keep the SON in your eyes!
Mark
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