Rays of Light

There are moments in every person’s life when a single image, thought or statement illuminates the mind profoundly. I had such an experience just this week. As my sons and I were conversing, my youngest spoke of “the artistic beauty of ruins.”

Immediately my own thoughts flowed in an entirely different direction. “The artistic beauty of ruins,” I pondered. What a perfect summation of Isaiah 61:3

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them 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 .

Being an archaeology enthusiast, I long ago learned to appreciate the beauty in many of the structures made desolate over time. While it is true that some folks would view such ruins as nothing more than a heap of stones or toppled pillars, I see a work of art, once exquisitely crafted, now transformed into that which exhibits a different kind of beauty –more simplistic perhaps, but magnificent nonetheless.

Such is the essence of my own life. I was created in God’s image; a beautiful dwelling wherein His Holy Spirit could abide. But this frail, human vessel was broken down over time and made desolate –uninhabitable. So broken, in fact, that when others looked upon me, they ceased to notice that which was beautiful and were rather appalled at the shambles I had become.

Much of humanity can say the same of their own lives. Praise God, this is where “the artistic beauty of ruins” comes into fruition. No matter how broken or shattered our lives are, God still looks upon those who are His own, through eyes so filled with love that He sees only beauty. It is a more simplistic beauty because that is what brokenness does – it crumbles all the parts of us that remain lofty and impenetrable until we appear useless in the world’s sight, and yet of great value in God’s.

Perhaps, dear reader, you also feel that your life has gone from splendor to shambles. But remember, beauty and value lie in the eyes of the beholder. Had you been alive when Jesus Christ walked the earth as a man, would you have thought Him beautiful? I am certain you would have, yet this is how the Bible described Him:

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.              Isaiah 53:2-3

Of course, it was only those of this world that esteemed Him not. Those who knew Him as LORD considered Him to be the most beautiful sight on earth. Even after His body was mangled and crucified, Jesus’ followers soon saw the artistic beauty in the ruins of his crucifixion stake, for their eyes looked upon the sight with a much different understanding.

Likewise, when this world looks upon you with indifference, or even disdain,  your Father in Heaven looks at you with a different understanding, as we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory  (II Corinthians 3:18).

I would like to encourage you, then, to begin seeing yourself as Jesus does. Initially, you may see only the ruins, but eventually you will begin to appreciate the artistic beauty of the ruins until that glorious day when we shall all be perfected.