The South Kessock playground is a rather lonely place in the middle of an overgrown field. Most of the play things including the swings have all been taken. All that’s left are some metal poles and a patch of asphalt covered with broken glass. The locals know it as a place not for kids to play but for folks to gather to drink.
There was a community clean-up day this past Monday that was focused on trying to pick up litter in the playground and the surrounding field. Five of us from our wee church went to help out, and it was so very good to get out and seek to serve our community together.
While cleaning up the play park, I kept thinking of how much the broken glass was a picture of our community with its raw edges, broken families, addiction, sin, and pain. It’s easy to wonder what the point is of cleaning up the glass since it will just return again. And that’s how a lot of people here view their lives, too…what’s the point of even trying? There’s no hope.
But there is hope in the hand of the Redeemer. And if the broken glass in the playground is a picture of the lost in our community, then I think the sea glass I often find down by the water here is an illustration of those redeemed from their old lives by the hand of Christ. Those who come to faith in the schemes are often saved in the midst of lives that are chaotic and full of the painful consequences of sin and addiction. Yet just as even the roughest piece of sharp-edged glass can be transformed by the sea into a lovely bit of smooth sea glass, so the Lord can save folks from the roughest of backgrounds and, through patient discipleship and, often, sovereignly ordained sea waves of affliction, transform them into reflections of His character and beauty. What a mighty Lord we serve.
So even though it can be easy to grow discouraged in serving a community which so many view as beyond hope, we do not lose heart but, rather, fix our eyes on Him who is able to save to the uttermost. Pray that we would persevere!
Please pray for me, too, as I continue my Ragged School studies. I am so glad to be learning from the folks at 20schemes and am constantly both encouraged and challenged by my Ragged studies. Today, for example, Mez very helpfully walked our class through a biblical view of addiction. I was encouraged by his words that it is simply not true that someone is “once an addict, always an addict” since there is forgiveness and new life in Christ. As Mez said, pointing to God’s work even in his own life, “I no longer am an addict. I am a new creation.” Amen!
Also, the Covid rules changed here on Monday to allow small groups of people to gather in homes. What a grace from the Lord! Keven and Cate were the first we were able to have over for dinner, and you can see our gladness in the picture below. 🙂
Keven and Cate are a part of our launch team and are such a dear gift to all of us. They are encouragers, humble servants, faithful pray-ers, and have such a genuine love for Jesus. Please pray for them, especially for the Lord to encourage them as they live and work and serve Jesus in Merkinch.
Thank you for reading this far and for your steadfastness in prayer. How grateful I am for your prayers for us! “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Fix your eyes on the gracious Christ,
Claire
Claire in Scotland 