An Iconic Moment

Last night at church during worship I was reminded of one of the iconic moments that I had while I was in India. Our director had challenged us to find different iconic moments throughout our days and weeks while we were living in the city. He challenged us to look for the ways God may be trying to speak to us and to actively seek the joyful things, the beauty amidst so much brokenness and hardship.

I remember so badly wanting to find all these iconic moments and kept searching and looking so hard for them. 

I think I tried  a little too hard at times. 

One afternoon though I was traveling back to the apartment after a full day at my placement. I was on the metro and was standing there thinking about the day and what had happened and how tired I was and how crowded the metro was and wondering if the train was going to be hectic and whether or not I would be able to find the right train to get home on right away or if I would have to wait or how many people I would have to ask before I found the right train when I got to the station. 

The metro is underground for the most part where we would usually ride it. Going back to our apartment we would be underground for about two stops, until you reached the third and last stop where we would get off the metro and hop on the train (more like be shoved in a giant mob onto the train). 

There was a moment where you would be on the metro and come out into the light of day, before reaching the train station. Before this point the metro noise would seem to build and build until you suddenly emerged into the sunlight, where you could see your surroundings and watch the scenery fly by. This was always my favorite moment on the metro, bursting out of the darkness into the light of day once again. 

This afternoon was different. As we came into the light, I was looking at all the buildings that I had seen many times before on my travel on the metro. Yet this particular day I was hit by the beauty of them all. They were all these old looking buildings that were colorful but looked to be falling apart. They had peeling paint, were dirty and looked old and broken down.

I found them absolutely stunning. 

It hit me at that point; Jesus does the same for us. 

He sees all of our imperfections, our broken parts, our dirtiness, the areas where we are broken down; essentially, he sees everything that is wrong with us. 

He sees everything and he still loves us. Despite all of our imperfections, he sees our beauty. 

He could look on us with disdain and decide that we are not good enough. He doesn’t though. He instead looks at us and calls us worthy and valuable. Every single person. No matter what.

It was such a simple thing, yet something I needed to hear at that moment.

It was another lesson God was teaching me on that trip about the beauty found in brokenness, his perfect love and redemption.