fashionedbyhishand: Out of the Miry Clay

lots of rainy days = 1 gigantic, muddy mess.....

I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Psalm 40:1-3

As a child of God I have experienced slime, mud, muck, & mire. It is a aweful place to be. It is the state of a sinner. A sinner who has sunk low in guilt and corruption because that is ALWAYS where his sinful nature will lead. It's a sad situation because apart from God, he is an outcast. It steals all the beauty that he could have in sight of a Holy God. Without Christ, all this life has to offer is pain, sorrow, and a dark state of sin.

So to speak, we wallow in sin and the harder we try to "get-out" the deeper we get stuck. We slide from one side to the next. It is miserable as there is no firm footing or stability in sin. And their is no way of escape....

It is not until we cry out for our Redeemer to come and lift us from that muddy, icky mess. Salvation comes as a result of us asking for it. It can even be the faintest cry and God will hear and deliver. The great news is that Salvation is free! It is a gift; a gift that God expects every weary and sin-laden sinner to use.

It is a beautiful word picture of God reaching down with His strong, loving arms and lifting us out, mud & slime dripping off as He lifts, and then He sets us on a firm place to stay. That is the Rock of Jesus Christ. It is a sure and firm place where we can stand. It is our foundation and on it we build our hope, our life, our character.

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On this particular day, my 3 yr. old daughter literally got exposed to mud, muck, and "getting stuck." She had a ball for awhile; until she was sick of the goopy mess. She would come to the back door and holler to come in.

I was babysitting for a little boy and at the moment was giving him his bottle; hence the clean-up had to wait. In fact, I encouraged her to "play" some more...I gave her a spoon, old muffin pan, and cupcake liners and told her to go make mud pies for dessert. That seemed to occupy her for awhile longer. (and just in case you were wondering, that dress went straight to the trash!)