Beauty from Ugly
Beauty from Ugly
Today, as severe storms and tornado warnings rolled through my town, I was able to sit in one of my happy places, outside in the pre storm breeze, enjoying the wind in my face and the drop in temperature. As I sat outside, it brought me back to a trip I took a few summers ago to my family's lake home. It was here I enjoyed another pre storm breeze, which was the icing on our cake to an already great weekend away!
As I left town on a late summer Friday afternoon for my family's lake home, the horizon was filled with smog. The haze only grew thicker as I neared the lake. Ozone alerts were issued as the air was filled with particles of dirt and dust, stuck in the humid southern air. As we watched the sun set over the lake later that evening, I was awestruck by the vibrant shades of orange, purple, blue, yellow, and red in the sky, reflecting onto the calm waters, making it look like the lake was on fire.
The transformation from driving through the smoggy haze into dwelling in the beauty of a vibrant sunset on the lake that weekend reminds me of the ugliness God takes away in our lives to make us beyond beautiful and perfect: our ugly sin. God loves us so much that He goes beyond forgiving our sins each day: He transforms them into something better! When God looks at us, His children, He sees us as beautiful in the purest way. He sees us as His perfect image: without our scars, without our baggage, without our wounds, without our imperfections, without our smog filled hearts. He simply looks at our smog filled hearts and because of His love and the cross, all He sees is His vibrant sunset.
He takes us as an ozone alert smog, where we are barely able to breath on our own, and transforms us, weaving our sin and broken life stories into something beautiful for His kingdom. As His sons and daughters, He shines His light through them, and sees us as wholy unbroken and perfectly created. He shines His light through our smog, transforming the particles of dust into a sunset sky full of every vibrant shade of orange, purple, blue, yellow, and red, sitting atop of water that is smooth as glass and glistening with a sparkling fire of His power and perfection!