“You make beautiful things; You make beautiful things out of the dust.
You make beautiful things; You make beautiful things out of us.”
– Gungor, Beautiful Things
A similar “desert” season to the one I have endured of chronic pain was that of singleness. I waited even longer for a husband than I have waited for healing.
Singleness can feel dark, lonely, hopeless even. And yet it is from that very place that God brought forth the idea for the book I am now writing.
He brings forth beauty from ashes. Restoration from brokenness. Ministry from trials.
Are you in a season of singleness? Are you waiting for God to deliver you a helpmate–or something else? Do you feel like you are in the middle of a dry and dusty desert?
Wilderness, not desert.
The Israelites had to wander the desert for 40 years en route to the Promised Land. While most think of it as the desert, it was, in fact, a wilderness. A wilderness is different from a desert because there are places of provision—water, food, shade.
God didn’t lead them and doesn’t lead us through the desert; He carries us through the wilderness.
And from the wilderness beauty, growth, and goodness are brought forth.
This week I invite you to ask God to reveal to you how He might be growing beauty from your wilderness.
Just look at this photo above. Picture it in your mind when you get discouraged on the journey. Remember that God can bring bold, bright beauty from the driest and most desolate of places.
Beautiful things.
I actually first used a similar photo in a post from two years ago around this time. Clay and I were engaged and I was reflecting on God’s faithfulness in bringing beauty at the end of that difficult wilderness of singleness.
And as I sit here today battling this wilderness of chronic pain I can’t help but find it ironic, or fitting rather, that He would have me writing this today. For it gives me such hope for the future knowing the truth about the character of this God who walks with me through it all.
He wants good for His children {Matthew 7:11}. And while we may live in a broken and fallen world, our God has the power and ability to bring beauty from the dustiest of terrain, from the darkest of places, and from the most difficult seasons of our lives.
It’s from the very dust that He created the first human life. How much more can He create beauty from the dirt of your life and mine?
“the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” – Genesis 2:7
“And the Lord will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.” – Isaiah 58:11
“He changes a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry land into springs of water.” – Psalm 107:35
Thanks be to God for this truth. Would the wilderness lead us through the journey from knowing this truth in our heads to believing it in our hearts, and then allowing it to fill us up so much so that it would pour out for all others to see. After all, it’s all for His glory.
Lord, reveal to us the beauty you are bringing from the wilderness. Reveal it clearly and boldly.
This week I invite you to memorize this verse. May it fill your mind and help you to fight lies with the Truth as you traverse the wilderness of this Lenten season and any wilderness season of life in which you may find yourself.
“The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.”
– Isaiah 35:1
