Behind every face there is a story waiting to be told.  My lovely models above helped illustrate the powerful words by Jeanette Hickman. Get ready to be impacted!

GOLD by Jeanette Hickman

“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they increase the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.”…

You have been told too many tall tales about your identity
Sold the notion you are nothing
Persuaded you’re pathetic
Undeserving of Gods presence
Presented with the ingrained idea that this is all that’s left and you only get leftovers
So you cling to the scraps of sorta compliments and the tattered rags we call riches here

Awash in worthless
And you drown in it
Sink under the water heavy weight of your sin,
Confident only in your crime
Or left feeling like the victim,
You are bombarded by the message that you don’t matter
And lies layered upon lies that shout your mistakes are your makeup

Beloved wake up
The truth is
There are gold lined cracks that reside within you
And you are worth more than this world would redeem
You weren’t meant to parade around in a pawn shop, but a castle

You are a treasure chest
Withered by wind and rain and sea
There are secrets locked inside you
You, who are the X on the map whose dotted lines lead back to Creation
And the Creator rallied a rescue mission to retrieve you
For he is the only one who holds the key

And your brain might be bubbling up with little thoughts of insufficiency
“I am nothing. I am worthless. I AM NOTHING”

That sinister voice is the Pillager
He who steals and destroys
Using ploys to tickle your eardrums with truth undone
Unwinding your very value
His pockets full of profit from your self-doubt and disgust
“In God we mistrust” is his anthem
And he’s sneaky
A boombox in your brain
Creeping into your cranium like a erra-repeated jukebox song
HE IS WRONG. SHUT HIM OUT AND MOVE ON.

You have been hurt
Struck down, maimed, and made to feel the world’s harsh sting
But you have history knit within
Past wounds are wound together by threads of gold centuries old
A millennium of minutes, cells that end and rebirth again
And your broken pottery pieces are made all the more a masterpiece when the master rebuilds you

Listen
The heartache rips and tears of your past does not lend you damage
It gives you more value
There will be no downgrading your existence
You are worth more than hand-me-down happiness and backyard baselines
You are worth life
You are worth sacrifice
For God so loved the world
For God so loved the world that he GAVE
Sacrificed his only son
Divinity turned human
He humbled himself to give you your crown
The only stipulation that you bow down
Kneel low in recognition of the authority of the king
By the power vested in He
Arise
Nobility
Knighted in glory and adorned with his crest
Royalty runs through your veins
Trumps all your pains
Trumpets declare in the heavens that you are the lineage of God
Whether you do right or wrong
You have a story that resounds like no other song

So stand up straight
As straight as the cross
No curves in your spine because you are aligned with Christ

You are diamonds
Not covered in coal
You were not built to be burned
We were grown to glow, like lights on a hill
Shining brightly bejeweled
Gems that stand the sands of time
So shine, beloved, shine