God's Engraving.

In the far corner of the antique store was an area reserved for estate jewelry. Having belonged to people before, these pieces reflect a time and elegance past. I noticed a pristine silver platter, and the sales assistant explained how they remove all the scratches, marks, and engravings to give it that brand-new look.

As I left the store, I thought about the exorbitant effort made to make the platter look new. What did it look like before? Whose initials were they? Was it a wedding gift, engraved for a lifetime of happiness? How did the scratches get there? Did a child unsuccessfully try to help clear the table, or a dog voraciously lick up the left over juice? Whatever initials or scratches were there, they're gone now. Anything that identified the platter is gone. Now it looks like any other platter. Much was lost in the process, but I'm sure it makes it easier to sell.

 We are not all that different. We, too, have been engraved, bare the marks of our particular family.  If baptized, we are “marked as Christ’s own forever.” We also have lots of scratches from fully lived lives. The sad thing is we work just as hard, if not harder, to remove all distinguishing features. In an effort to appear brand new, or to look like everyone else, we remove the very markings that make us unique.

Perhaps it makes us easier to sell, but I’ve come to see the scrapes and marks as part of who we are. The wrong and right turns that left their marks on us, the great and not so great moments that made deep impressions, are all part of “God’s engraving.”

How dare we polish them out!