Something Beautiful

If you needed some encouragement today...

This frigid March I walked past a group of bright yellow daffodils; I was surprised they were blooming after just a few sunny days. The next day, I saw that children had been playing, and one had ripped a daffodil out of the ground and thrown it into a puddle. The contrast of the bright yellow verses the dirty mud struck me, and I took a picture.

Soon there was a very cold night, followed by hail, wind, and rain, which completely shriveled and kill the rest of them. I don’t particularly feel emotional about flowers, but I felt horrified as I stared at the formerly beautiful, delicate things, now pitifully withered and crumpled and broken.

The message here is clear to me: we are torn, broken, and muddy—we are completely far away from our original, beautiful design. Our own sin and the hurtful sin of others has completely distorted our formerly perfect bodies and souls. Terrible things have happened to us, and we are trapped in a puddle of despair, unable to see how this could ever be made into something beautiful. Shame and guilt wreak havoc as we allow them to control our very thoughts, unable to see the destruction they are causing. Once a beautiful flower-- oh, how we have fallen. Yet there is One who is ready to completely restore us and our situations into a thing of beauty. He is not far, just a simple call away, really. He is ready to pull us out of our situation, wash us clean, and heal our wounds and brokenness…He never passes over broken people. When the world wants to throw them away for lack of usefulness, beauty, and societal gain, He calls them His friends. When the world tells them they are worthless, He sees them as treasure.

“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.” (Hosea 6:1, ESV)

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? (Jer. 32:27)

"For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’ (Jer. 30:17)

“And God says
I’m gonna turn it into something different
I’m gonna turn it into something good
I’m gonna take all the broken pieces
And make something beautiful like only I could
So put it all in the hands of the Father
Give it up, give it all over to
The only one who can turn it into
Something beautiful…”
(Something Beautiful, Steven Curtis Chapman)