Beautiful Things That Fall Apart

Thursday, October 24, 2002

Occasionally my wife flips on the TV to one of those home shopping channels. And there actually are some good deals that show up there. She saw this 14-karat gold bracelet and she decided to order it. When it arrived, it looked just as beautiful as it had on television ... until our two-year old grandson got interested in it. He saw it on a dresser and was instantly fascinated with the bracelet. He picked it up, played with it for a moment - at which point the bracelet just totally fell apart. Karen said there was one drawback to ordering from television or catalogs - she just couldn't hold the jewelry in her hand and feel the weight of it. The bracelet turned out to be very attractive on the outside - but hollow on the inside.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Beautiful Things That Fall Apart."

Maybe you've experienced that kind of disappointment in your life - not with jewelry but with relationships, your job, your dream, your accomplishments, or even your marriage. It was beautiful for a while, but then it just fell apart. It's almost like many of the things we depend on for happiness and meaning turn out to be hollow inside.

Those disappointments start us searching for something that's both beautiful and solid gold inside and out. Something that won't fall apart on us, something that won't let us down or leave us alone, something unbreakable ... "unloseable." That search has led millions of people ultimately to Jesus Christ. It could be that He's where your search can end, too.

Jesus met a searcher at a well one day; a well where both he and this woman had stopped for a drink on a hot day. Their conversation later revealed that this woman had been looking for love and fulfillment in relationships with one man after another. Now, we all look different places, but we're all looking. Her hopes, her search just happened to be in series of relationships.

In John 4:13-14, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus identifies the problem with so many of the "beautiful things" we look to - and then offers something very exciting. Speaking symbolically, Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." Translation: things just keeping leaving us unsatisfied, still searching. "But whoever drinks the water I give him," Jesus says, "will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." That's "eternal" as in unloseable.

What Jesus offers is the one relationship, the one love that will totally fill the hole in your heart. It's the relationship with Him that the Bible says you were literally created for. That's why all those other beautiful things ultimately seem so hollow. But that relationship with Jesus is impossible as long as your sin stands between you and Him. No religion can take it away. Only He can - because He died to pay for it.

So your search for your life-anchor finally ends when you open up your life to the One who paid for your life on the cross. If you've never done that, you could do it right where you are. Tell Jesus, "I'm Yours from this day on." And you will finally belong to the One who loves you most. If that's what you want, I would love to send you my booklet, "Yours For Life" - it's all about beginning this relationship. Just let me know you want it.

You know what it is to pin your hopes on something that's beautiful for a while - until it falls apart in your hands. Jesus offers you life that is beautiful eternally. And no matter what else falls apart, this relationship is the one thing you'll never lose.