Living on bits and baubles

By: Carole L. Haines

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings. (Psalm 23:5)

As I have set my mind toward the healing of emotional trauma from my past, I have stumbled upon some very interesting aspects of how it manifests in our lives. One of the behaviors that I have discovered is that those of us who have dealt with trauma can sometimes tend to live on bits and baubles. We gather scraps, we don’t throw things away because we might need them. It made me wonder if we, as believers in Jesus, are living on scraps at times, when God has set out a feast before us. There is a beautiful verse about this in one of our most beloved psalms.

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings. (Psalm 23:5)

As believers, God has prepared a feast for us as His children through Christ. There are so many promises of God that are ours, yet we sometimes get stuck living on scraps, bits and baubles. The word ‘prepared’ in this verse can mean both to “set in order’ and ‘contend in battle.’ God is contending in battle for us with the enemy of our lives, past, present, and future. As trauma survivors, we need to learn how to live in the newness of His Kingdom Ways. We simply don’t know how to transition from the trauma of life gone awry, to the Kingdom of God’s glorious grace. One of my favorite verses is:

¹³ For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:14-15 NASB)

We may feel like a bit of scrap or a worthless trinket, but we are of great value to God. Part of my healing is coming to me because a counselor once wisely directed me to Paint my pain. Work it out in my creativity. So, I make Mosaic art pieces out of broken, jewelry, glass, metal, pottery etc. It is a reminder to all of us that none of us is beyond God’s Healing. We have been rescued. We have been transferred to a new Kingdom. ‘Sometimes we struggle to realize just how much “the world has been crucified to us, and us to the world.” (Gal. 6:14b) Our God has given us such a treasure trove of promises to walk in, a realm of grace to live in, both giving grace to ourselves and pouring it out on others. We are all broken, yet people who have suffered traumatic events and relationships just happen to be more aware of their brokenness than others. In a lot of ways, it has been a gift for me to unwrap, despite how painful it has been. My trauma is making me more sensitive to the hurt hearts of others around me. Lean into your painful past and yield it to Jesus, He will do miraculous things in your life. Though the journey is long and arduous, with Jesus holding our hand and leading us through, we will come out victorious.

 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2 Corinthians 2:14 NASB)

O Heavenly King Jesus, our rescuer and Savior, our Friend and He who intercedes for us at the throne of God; we cry out to You to reveal within us just how free we really are. Help us to choose not to live on spiritual bits and baubles when we have a table set before us in the presence of our enemies. We are free, we are unchained. Sometimes we just don’t know how to get up and walk away into the newness of life we already have as Your children. Open our eyes to see, our hearts to believe and our wills to choose to get up, take up our old mats that we used to lay upon as spiritual cripples, and walk with You in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Thank you, Jesus. Amen