beauty for ashes.

September 3, 2010

The other day, I went walking with a friend through a big old house that recently caught fire.  I can’t really explain why I like this kind of thing, but I do.  There’s something deep inside me that is drawn to old things– things that are worn and damaged, but beautiful, tested by time.  They have a quality, a uniqueness that is missing from the modern.

As I walked through the house, my attention was drawn to the old desk resting in shadows, the staircase to the top floor that (because the roof was missing) seemed to reach to the heavens, the sunlight that painted streams of gold on the dusty floor.  It is amazing that this house, which is so seemingly “ruined”, seemingly “unfit” for any good use, could bring me so much joy.

And while I stood there, camera at my side, looking upon this old house with wonder, all I could think was “beauty for ashes”.  This idea that the Lord can redeem the dirtiest and most broken people.  That nothing we can do, or say, or think, or dwell in is out of the reaches of His grace.  And when He gives grace, when He redeems, He transforms.  His glory is made evident in His creatures.  Because we are reminded that nothing we could have done, no “strength” we posess would have enabled us to do what the Lord does in and through us.  It is solely His love, His grace, His beauty, His power.

Isaiah 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;                                                                                                                                                                              he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;                                                                                                                                  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.”