Some people can look on a blank canvas and picture the beauty that could be there, or a fixer-upper house and see the potential, or a dilapidated piece of furniture and see a treasure. I’m not so good at that. That’s why I wasn’t a very good editor. I wasn’t so good at seeing what wasn’t there. My pastor likes to pray, “Lord, help me see what I’m not seeing.”
My friend Lyndee is an amazingly creative crafter, seamstress, writer and more. She once tried to teach me how to sew. I was successful at making a couple of things, but soon learned that I just didn’t have the interest or the knack. She did, however, successfully teach me how to cross stitch, and I have enjoyed that, though not in a long while.
Recently, she posted something on Facebook that was so truthfilled, I asked her if I could share it here. She graciously agreed.
“I love envisioning the beauty in all manner of tired, thrifted items, but the amount of time required to coax the beauty out for others to see often feels ridiculously wasteful. Mid-project, I realize that I must seem like a nut to normal people. But when I succeed, then comes joy! Not so much a look-what-I-made-cuz-I’m-super-awesome joy, as much as a look-at-the-awesomeness-I-found-hiding-in-there-how-cool-is-that?! Maybe that’s how God is with us. Our buried beauty is obvious to Him. He spends a painstaking amount of time coaxing that beauty out for others to see. Not a look-how-perfect-she-is-now, but a look-what-a-mess-she-was-when-I-found-her-and-how-lovely-and-unique-I-can-transform-her-to-be.”
Beauty from ashes, rags to riches, treasure from trash. There’s a big word for the work of God in each of our lives. It’s called “redemption.”
Praise be to God for His indescribable gift!
Thanks for the reminder, Lyndee!
image courtesy campclem.com
Compelled 