Beauty For Ashes

The story is told of several fishermen who had spent the day fishing in the locks of Scotland. When the day was done the decided to have tea at a little Scottish inn. As a waitress was bringing the tea one fisherman got carried away with his story while waving his hands and knocked a teacup from her tray and into a nearby wall. Immediately the whitewashed wall was stained with the ugly brown streaks of the tea. As the embarrassed man apologized another guest got up and went over to the tea stained wall and began to trace around the stains with his pen. In a matter of moments the tea stain became a beautiful picture of a royal stag with his antlers spread. The artist was Landseer, England's foremost painter of animals.

Have you ever felt like you missed it? Maybe you feel somehow you have made a horrible mess of life and it can never be fixed? I think we all may have been there or at least can think of several different times or situations in our life where we just messed up. I know in my life I look back and think about the messes I have made. I'm like the Apostle Paul when he said among sinners he was the chief. The good news is all is not lost. We severe a God who in his infinite grace and mercy can make the hardest heart soft, and can cleanse the deepest stain. Even though we in our own choices and ignorance may have made a mess of it all, he can still step in and paint a beautiful picture on the canvas of our life.

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto the beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
Isaiah 61:3