Glorious Ruins

I've been spending time reading again lately. Its at the top of my priority list to include in my daily activities some of the things I know I need to feel encouraged and strengthened in my daily walk. Reading is high on that list of things I need. Taking even just 30 minutes out each day to spend lost in the words of another takes me away from 'the here and now' and plants me in another place. One area of interest of mine always spins out of 'relationships' and how we can fine tune them. Wanting so desperately to have a marriage ahead that is much more successful then the one of my prior 'life' I find myself reading or more specificially devouring information that can help me find insight into myself as well as others.

I've recently stumbled across the works of Francis Schaeffer and authors who have used his writings as the basis of what they are trying to bring home to the reader. I've found myself really locked on one particular phrase. Francis Schaeffer coined the phrase "glorious ruin' as a description for the human condition. He adapted this phrase from an old soiled painting. No one knew who the artist was, but so much of the detail in the artwork made the viewer believe it was done by someone with a definate gift. Eventually this piece of art was taken to a expert who could lift the stains and clean up the piece. He studied the brushwork, the style and was able to determine the period in which it had been created. After careful study and a long period of time this expert was able to state without a shadow of a doubt who the creator was even though the 'masterpiece' lay now in ruins. How true this is about our condition here.

Paula Reinhart states this "Don't the two words glory and ruin describe with painful accuracy what you live with every day in yourself and in those you love? For we do bear the glory of God imprinted on the image of our souls. To fall in love with someone is to be given a glimpse of the potential for the glory God put there originally. And yet we can't be with ourselves or someone we love for long without seeing another reality equally true: That image has been so marred in the fall and the stain of sin that sometimes, it's a crying shame." How can we choose not to love? I know the world would say it is easier to hide yourself away from each other if you have been hurt in the past. To shield yourself from the pain of possibly being hurt in the process of any sort of relationship. But I ask you this, Why would you want to avoid the small chance to see for any short period of time the beauty God unfolds in your life by chosing not to love.