Thankful for the remnants

I was was walking around in Scotland a few years back and ran across this old broken rundown chapel.

It was a chapel found on the backside of Mount Holyrood on the outskirts of Edinboro. It is thought to have been built as part of a complex to house those affected by the plague to get them out of the city. While I was there, I stopped and prayed for a friend of mine who was struggling with cancer. I was thinking about the picture here. This chapel is old and broken down, barely standing, but there is just enough remaining of the structure so that if you look very close, it's not hard to imagine it serving the purpose it was designed for. It's small, but I can imagine a group of sick and sorry folks doing their best to offer prayers and studying the Word, maybe even singing an old hymn or two. It also gave me a place to come before the throne that day, even as broken as it was. My friend, at that time, was in his last days, and did not last long after that. However, in that moment, I couldn't help but think about the impact he had made on me and many others in our circle of friends. I also couldn't help but imagine that his broken down body, ravaged by that horrible disease, looked like a frail and broken remnant of the person we all knew. However, I was confident then and remain confident now that God would use what remained of his life left to bring people before His throne. Today, I am thankful for all those remnants in my life who have helped me become who I am and who have reminded me to continue to come to the throne.