“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
I want to share with all of you something that happened yesterday that made me think of this verse. Long story short, two women from the social work site in El Callejon, both expecting a baby girl very soon, had commissioned me with the task of painting cute signs with the babies’ names on them. So I spent two afternoons painting. Naturally I got a little bored and began painting doodles on myself thinking nothing of it.
Later that day, at the end of our time with the preteens, one girl notices the rose on my thumb and wants one too. Sure. But you see, when one girl wants something, all of them do. And so began a line of demanding thirteen year olds. But then, the girls weren’t satisfied with just flowers, so they kept coming back for more. Then one girl comes and gives me her entire arm and wants me to paint her name on it. Well alright. I’m about to start when I see her arm is covered in scars. From her wrist to her elbow is evidence of self harm. I looked up at her face to see a huge smile and overwhelming joy and I begin painting over her scars with big pink letters. As I did this, I thought about how Christ takes us as we are, broken, tattered and lost and restored us to who we are in Him. We are not defined by our scars, but by the one who’s blood was shed to cover them, and sometimes pink fabric paint.
After dinner this evening we gathered around a large bonfire and just sorta recapped our whole trip. Rachel asked us questions to do with things we’ve learned, what we will take away, where we met God, and what we do now. Our community has been quite the struggle bus with relationships and gossip, and it got pretty nasty on this trip, and through this bonfire we all sorta decided to really squish this bug once and for all. We snapped to it, so now it has to happen. I’m very proud of this class, and the people in it and I’m so very grateful for this experience.
God bless,
– Kaylee