The great oak

As I was packing up to move into my new home after marrying, I came across a box of letters from friends over the years.
One in particular stood out.
It was from my dear friend, Amber. The Lord brought her home to be with Jesus just a couple of months earlier after her long fight with cancer.

I opened the letter with a reverence…
I had read the letter before… but, this time it was different.
I wanted to hold on to the words she had spoken. To savor the truth she shared.

“In everything you do, Jenni, always pursue righteousness.”

Over 20 years later, and those words still come to my mind regularly… reminding me to seek my King.
Always.

Our God is a God who turns things that are falling apart.
Broken, ugly…
He takes them and makes them beautiful.
The story of God taking ashes and giving a crown of beauty instead.

I was reading in Isaiah 61 – where that verse about giving beauty for ashes comes from. This passage explains over and over the things our God turns into beauty.

Look at what it says:

He binds up the brokenhearted
He gives freedom for the captives
…release from darkness for the prisoners
…comfort for those who mourn
…providence for those who grieve
…a crown of beauty for ashes
…joy for mourning
…praise instead of a spirit of despair

{Then look what it says!}
“They will be called OAKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.”

The brokenhearted…
the captives
the prisoners
those who mourn and grieve
those with ashes
those in despair…

When the ugly is offered to our God, not only is it traded for beauty…

“THEY will be called OAKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS”

But what if we have to go through the mourning…
to experience the comfort.
Can I recognize beauty without knowing ashes?

I won’t know or understand the amazing freedom found in Jesus,
if I don’t recognize my sin.
If I don’t see my captivity, how can I know freedom?

In this world…
In our sinful nature, we are going to have plenty of opportunity to experience these ugly things.

But, remember, it isn’t about the ugly!
Our King KNOWS where we have been and He has a plan to transform and make things new and beautiful.

Last week I came across this quote:
“The greatest oak was once a little nut that held it’s ground.”

In your grief… in your despair. In your prison…
Whatever ugly you are experiencing.
Come to your King.
Hold your ground…
Stand firm in righteousness.
Cling to your King.
Pursue righteousness by offering what looks like your ugly to God.

All of the ugly… the prison, the mourning, the despair, the grief.
All of it is transformed when we come to Him.

And, for what purpose?

Our Lord. Our King… transforms our ugly to His beautiful, making us like ‘oaks of righteousness’ to display His glory.

We are the ones called oaks of righteousness… planted to display His glory.

How do we do that?
We share our story.
We share the struggle of our weakness.
We share the grief.
We share our ashes and brokeness.

But then… we share our story of being made new.

It isn’t our ‘stuff’ or circumstances that He turns around, it is us.

It is His story of redemption in our lives.

Yep, it keeps coming back to that.
We have to share our story of redemption…

If we don’t share the ugly, we can’t share the beautiful.

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This post is part of the 31 Day Challenge: My Ugly, His Beautiful. You can follow along here.

Care to join in on the writing challenge? The Nester is putting it on – you can learn more here.