out of the ashes ....

a couple of years ago

i sat with a friend of mine in her front yard

& watched her house burn down.

this wasn't just any house ....

this was a house 4 generations of her

family had lived.

it was one of the saddest moments of her life,

my life, & all of the other friends

that gathered around her that day to just be there.

last week, i was over at her new home for dinner

& i noticed her wedding cake topper

displayed in her china cabinet.

it was her original topper ... rescued from the fire that destroyed

almost everything she once owned.

.

i was amazed at how beautiful it was after

such a horrific fire.

she told me that she found it in the burnt rubble

& was able to clean it up ... almost to it's original condition.

{i was so happy for her}

then... i got thinking ...

isn't that what God does for us???

He finds us in the ashes...

covered in the black soot of our bad decisions, poor choices, & sin...

lifts us out of the rubble we've created...

then lovingly cleans us up, wipes away the ugliness covering

the beauty he intended us to be.

i'm so thankful for God's restoration & redemption...

& so thankful that my friend's rescued cake topper

reminded me of His goodness!

 

"He will give beauty for ashes,

joy instead of mourning,

praise instead of heaviness"

Isaiah 61:3