The sleet had been heavy during the night. The ice was thick. At mid-morning the sun burst out and the temperature crept above freezing. My wife and I started driving across rural Virginia. It was beautiful! The trees seemed to be covered by veils of jewelry. Majestic trees and evergreen plants sparkled.
Then we noticed! Even the ugly had become beautiful. The weeds were shining. The briars were reflecting brilliance. Common field grass had a wonderful luster. It had been so easy to look up and see the expected beauty. It was a surprising revelation to see the common now clothed in beauty. What a great lesson from God! We expect to see God in “typical” miracle-working situations and sometimes miss the very obvious.
You may sometimes feel that you are so ordinary that God cannot make you especially attractive. God has promised us through His Messiah that He would “bestow on them a crown of beauty for ashes.” (Isaiah 61:3 NIV) God can take our ugliness and wrap it in His beautiful love. Look around you, you will meet some beautiful people when you least expect it.
Just as we had discounted the trashy grass along the road that God had chosen to make beautiful, no one expected that the prostitute Rahab could be used by God. Nor the young girl Mary. Nor the Christian-hater Saul. Nor the tax collector named Matthew. Until today God continues to make new beauty for the world. A man named Johnson Oatman Jr. once said “Jesus took my burden and left me with a song.” It is not as simplistic as the saying “the world gave me a lemon and God took it and made lemonade.” It is more personal as we come to God in faith, with nothing in our hands but ashes, and He makes something beautiful. As the Bible promises to those who will trust Him: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)
“God, the front-page of the paper describes so much ugliness, our hearts long
for a taste of beauty. Help us to see Jesus today, wherever we go. Thanks! Amen”
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