Isaiah 61: 1-3 describes the work that Jesus would do when he came to earth to die for our sins. It says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”
Part of verse 3 became very real to me recently as I talked with a dear friend who lost her Daddy last week in a car accident and her mother was critically injured and remains in a coma. She shared with me as she sat by her mother’s bedside what she was going through emotionally. I, too, lost my Daddy just a few years ago to cancer and it is one of the most difficult things we will go through on this earth. I cannot imagine having to face the possibility of losing two parents at the same time. I spoke the only words to my friend that I knew to speak and those only by the help of the Holy Spirit. Later her sister told me that my words had helped my friend so much and that she was finally able to turn loose emotionally and acknowledge that her mother might not live.
As I pondered on my friend’s situation and what I might have said that impacted her, it occurred to me that the Lord had done exactly what He said He would do through the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” The Holy Spirit had comforted me and sustained me during my time of loss and now I was able to offer that same comfort to my dear friend. What was the Lord doing? He was making beauty from ashes. He took the ashes of sorrow that I experienced and allowed something beautiful, loving and comforting to emerge in order to help someone else.
The Holy Spirit is an expert at that, by the way and He can and will do it for you. What are you going through today that is painful and difficult—a trial that produces ashes of sorrow? Just wait, He will bring beauty from that experience if only you will allow Him. Perhaps you have been the recipient of love, support and care from someone who had known the ashes of sorrow but now was showing forth a crown of beauty.
“Comfort those with the comfort we ourselves have received”. “A crown of beauty instead of ashes”. I’d love to hear your stories of how God has taken ashes and turned them into something beautiful. Share them in the comments section of this blog. You just might be used by God to help someone else.
