Beauty

There is so much beauty in this world.  I see it in people, and in the creativity that flows from them.  In sounds.  On pages.  In nature.  There's beauty in the way a mama talks to her child, there's beauty in the sound of the wind.  I see it when she smiles at him.  I hear it with the words, "i love you, mom."  I feel it in the arms of my husband wrapped around me.  


I know beauty.  It comes on wings.  It rests a while.  It fades. It remains, though flickering.  Beauty: I see it in a child's eyes, in the grasping of tiny fingers around a papa's. 


I see beauty in the imperfect and in the crooked.  In the plain, in the grand.  Beauty comes in many forms.  Artful, soulful expression.  It comes from within, from without.  


Even ugly can be beautiful.  When He takes the pain, the sadness, the hurt and he makes something new with it.  Beauty from ashes.

This is an amazing work, so loving and tender.  The 'work' is happening before one can see it.  It is deep.  It is still dark while the breath of life is being breathed.  This breath is alive, holy.  So still it is at times... imperceptible.  Isaiah 61 tells me that The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me.  To proclaim this good news, and to provide for those grieving, to bestow on them a crown of BEAUTY instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  This is incredible because the ugly is not yet beautiful.  But He knows it will be.  It will be.   He provides for me and you in grief.  And He takes our ashes and gives us crowns of BEAUTY.  And then.  Then, as He wills, the ashes turned beauty touch another's life.  

I want to be a reflection of His beauty.