“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes…” (Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV).

He thought his life was over a few years ago, but he then received a heart and kidney transplant and has had a good life since. When I met him today, he had a request, “Pray for us. This month we are going to meet for the first time the parents of the young man who donated his organs for me. We have never met them, but they invited us. They had been homeless with a rough life before their son died of meningitis. They’ve turned all that around now. It’s going to be quite an emotional experience for all of us.”

God does that—takes parents who are homeless and a son who died, then reshapes tragedy into renewed life. God took a family the world had burned to ashes and saved the life of another. Reminds me of another Son’s death that brought life to the world. Beauty from ashes.

This is each of our stories, some more dramatic than others.

Some of us were clearly destroyed by the world until we found new life in Him.

Some of us had fairly smooth lives but were sliding toward an end of nothingness or worse until He grasped us and carried us to a life of beauty, truth, meaning and presence—a life we now know only in part but someday will know fully and forever.

Some of us carry ashes that may not be transformed on this side of glory, but now, backed by His promise above, we can look at those ashes and declare, “Someday, He will make you beautiful.”

All of us were destined to slide into hell or nothingness until the cross flipped our destiny around. All of us had only shells of true life until we met our Lord. But now, our present has been filled with the eternal, and we have hope for our future, a hope that will not disappoint us.

Beauty from ashes.

Dear Father,

How hopeless and meaningless are the plans of my life without you. How hopeful are even the ashes of my life with your touch.

Amen