Ashes.

It is laughter and it is beautiful and I smile as it rises slow like dew on a spring morning.  It tickles my heart, whispering healing into broken corners.  And isn't that beautiful?  That small giggle of happiness, that contentment that escapes the lips of children on the breath of unbridled laughter?  It is freedom and today, in this moment, it is restoration.  And I doubt that I have ever heard a more beautiful sound in all of my life. 


This sounds so much like the soundtrack of my life recently.  Not all laughs, no, but all healing.  Like a gentle caress from the Master's hand, directly connecting my mending heart to His mighty heart and breathing new life into this skin.  I breathe in, breathe out.  Inhale this laughter, this joy.  Exhale His peace, His grace.  Who but God could fix me?  Who but God could make beauty out of the mess that my mangled heart had been?


Did He not say that He would give us beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61:3)?  Yes, but I dare to say that I didn't truly believe it would be possible until I began feeling the first few true strokes of beauty against the ashes of my brokenness.  Late night conversations, long awaited apologies, much needed closure.  God is closing the doors of my past, and closing them quite completely, blowing ashes away with each slamming door.


For years, I held onto that particular verse with a death grip.  "Beauty for ashes, Father," I would plead, reminding Him of what I desired so badly.  I always thought that the beauty awaiting me was merely going to be a replacement of the people and dreams I had lost.  But as time has passed, as Jesus and I have wrestled together and have grown closer and have developed a relationship stronger than ever before, I laugh at that notion for I have learned something so important in my waiting.


Christ is beauty.


What on earth could be more beautiful than Christ's demonstration of great love?  This Heavenly transaction has always been.  I bring Him a sinful flesh, a darkened soul, and in exchange He gives His life.  I give Him my ashes, my broken pieces, and He gives Himself.  And isn't that all I need?  In Him, I have everything. 


Can you say the same, friend?  Have you given Him the ashes of your life, the broken pieces that are mangled and destroyed?  Each time I believe that I am as healed as I am going to get, He brings more of Himself, more of healing and laughter and joy.  He is the beauty for which I exchange my ashes.  And although I know I received the better end of the deal, He still blesses me abundantly above and beyond anything I could ever wish for or deserve.


Healing is closer than it seems.  Beauty is near.  Christ awaits, breath held, heart pleading, for your response.  Will you choose beauty or will you cling to ashes?  God bless.