Beauty from Ashes!!

Sisterhood of Widows S.O.W.  Psalm 126:5-6  Please share on your Facebook so that others can see my blogs and maybe help them through their grief.

Beauty from Ashes!!

One of my favorite fall activities is a good bonfire.  I love sitting around a good fire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.  Sometimes at our bigger parties Kirk would get out his guitar and would serenade us with all types of music.  Since he has been gone, I haven't had the heart to do a big bonfire party.  I did purchase a small fire bowl and we have had small fires for birthday parties and small gatherings.  I love sitting out and watching the embers fly up toward a beautiful starry sky while bundled up watching the flicker of orange. 

Then comes the morning after; the ash and remnants of the firewood. What was once a beautiful glow of warmth is now a dark gray pile of ash and muck.  Doesn't this sound like the journey that we find ourselves on today?  What was once a warm glow of our lives with our husbands now feels like a heap of ash, gray and scattered.  How do you begin to clean up such a mess?  Where do you begin to sweep up the dust of the life you had?  I began with having faith and trust that Jesus would pick me up out of that nasty heap and clean me up and set me on my path of healing. 

We read in Isaiah 61:1-3,"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, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."  Jesus is right there with us in our mourning and is wanting to bring beauty out of the ashes that we find ourselves. 

One day at church during our music worship, they sang a song that brought tears to my eyes immediately.  I had never heard this song but after I left church I bought it.  The song is called Beautiful Things and it's by Gungor.  If you have not heard this song, I strongly encourage you to read the lyrics and listen to the song.  Here is a sample of the lyrics.

All this pain
I wonder if I'll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust

Sisters, He does make beautiful things out of the dust and ash.  He is in the process of making my life and yours into a garden that will glorify Him.  Do you believe this?  Do you trust Him to do this for you?  I sure hope you do!!

This song goes on and says:

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You!!

I love this song because it describes so many of our lives!!  Not only for us widows, but for all the broken people we all know.  No matter what situation you find yourself in right here and right now, life can be find in Him!! 

Lord I pray for beautiful gardens to spring out of all our ashes.  The path is long for us Lord and dust covers us but there is a beautiful garden waiting for us that You have personalized for each of us. Lord I pray that we each have the patience and trust to follow that path to our gardens.  Thank You Lord Jesus for those gardens of love.  In Your Precious Name I pray..Amen!!