Sandpaper to Heaven

“Do not grumble or complain about each other...” James 5:9

I like to train my mind to see the good in people and situations. I do not always succeed, but if I practice all the time, I know I will improve. I got very good advice from one of my godparents in marriage. She said always see your husband through God’s eyes. Today when marriage and family are under constant attack, we need to see our spouses through God’s loving and faithful perspective. God did not give us our spouses so that they will provide everything to make us happy. No man or woman on earth can ever fulfill all our emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental needs. And we will never be able to do the same for any one either, no matter how much we love them. 

I like to think of people as God’s sandpaper. If anyone aggravates me, annoys me, infuriates me, they are just smoothening my rough edges. We all have our rough edges. We are diamonds inside coal. Only heat and pressure, and lots and lots of time and patience can turn carbon into coal, and coal into a diamond. 

God’s ultimate goal for us is we enter His eternal Kingdom and join Him in His love. We obviously can’t get near Him right now with all our sin and imperfections. He’s working on that right now! Every time we say ouch! We need to see all our trials and challenges as opportunities for God to transform us. The stumbling blocks are actually stepping stones to becoming more and more the person we have the potential to be. 

At the start, we are like the ugliest lump of gold in God’s eyes. Full of imperfections and impurities. Then He starts His work in us, like a refiner using heat again and again and again to force our impurities to the surface. Ouch! The refiner knows His work is done when He can see His face reflected in the gold! 

In Romans 8:29, Saint Paul writes that God chose us to be like His Son, that we would all be brothers and sisters. Let us thank God for His patience, and stop grumbling and complaining about our brothers and sisters. Let us view each and everyone, and every situation as our stairway to heaven.