The Masterpiece Written in the Ruins

In the summer of 1741, George Frideric Handel was a broken man. The composer who had once filled London's concert halls faced mounting debts, failing health, and audiences that had abandoned him. At fifty-six, his career seemed over.

Then a libretto arrived from Charles Jennens — scripture passages telling the story of the Messiah. Something stirred in Handel. For twenty-four days he barely ate or slept. Music poured from him as if heaven itself were dictating the notes.

When his servant brought food during the composition of the "Hallelujah Chorus," he found Handel weeping. "I did think I did see all Heaven before me," Handel reportedly said, "and the great God Himself."

Messiah premiered in Dublin in 1742 and transformed everything. The work born from Handel's lowest season became the most beloved choral composition in history. The man the world had written off gave us music that still moves audiences to rise to their feet nearly three centuries later.

El Shaddai specializes in exactly this kind of work. He does not wait for us to get our lives together before He moves. He meets us in the ruins. Paul told the Corinthians that God's power is made perfect in weakness. Handel's story reminds us that the Most High often does His greatest work not in spite of our brokenness but through it. Whatever rubble lies around you today, it may be the very ground where God is composing something magnificent.