Shack of a Testimony...

Get yourself together.

Really.

I should have told this shack that. To hide it’s scars.

Perhaps something like...

“Stop wearing your weary. “

But I didn’t. Because it spoke to me. It haulted my scurrying attention.

Drenched in the sunset and standing a little lower than it used to.

I watched. I want to say that head tilted, soft smiling at the stories it told gawking.

Something nudged me to grab a camera.

Appreciating the stories it could tell...sitting out on this dirt road looking at this little shack...is something to be said of your testimony.

I could advise the owner to hide it.

To tear it down.

Shush up the stories of yesterday.

Be ashamed. Cover the scars.

We do that don’t we?

We tear it down and rebuild there and never mention the shack of who we once were.

Where He pulled us from. It’s shameful. It’s taboo.

I know.

But your scars...just like this little shack...will speak to someone.

There’s a story to tell. There’s someone else broken and withering in the wind that will relish and take peace in seeing your scars shine in the sunset.

It’s okay to be broken in the middle of the vast beauty that God is creating around you.

His love...like the sunset around this shack...creates warmth and beauty that screams of the possibilities of rebuilding.

It actually makes this shack beautiful...the sunset.

His redemption...His love...it does that to our shack of a history...our shack of a past too.

It makes it something to stop and stare at. Something for others to appreciate. To find hope in.

There’s someone stopped out on a metaphorical dirt road needing hope...staring at your shack in the sunset of God’s redemption. Finding peace there.

Just like this little shack...it can shine in all of it’s mangled glory to glorify the one redeeming it.

Your rescue story stands solid...preaching a sermon all it’s own to those willing to listen. To those crumbling behind their own yesterday...their own today.

You can rebuild around it and yet allow it to still stand...amongst the beauty of a new day...speaking volumes about the one who’s brought you through.

This little shack reminded me that there’s room all around for second chances...for growth...but in the midst of the new day we must appreciate what we’re growing from.

Your shack of a testimony shared at the right time...may be someone’s mansion of mercy.