Beauty for Ashes

The blog needed a name.  It's just had my name on it since I created it.  I have thought for a long time about it, and really hoped for something witty, catchy or creative.  God gave me a verse instead.

Does this every happen to you, where a verse will pop into your head, and you can't really remember the whole context of it or where it is?  And then later, you think of it again...and still don't remember all the details, until finally you think of it one more time, and look it up?  That's what happened to me.  I finally looked up beauty for ashes.  The heading over this chapter in my Bible says, "Good News for the Oppressed."

Let me be clear.  I am not oppressed.  I do not feel sorry for myself.  Maybe the last few years have been hard, but like I've said in the past, even when I don't feel like I'm choosing God, I believe He is always choosing me.

I do subscribe to Beth Moore's analogy of the pit.  I have been thrown into one, but I've also slid in and jumped in as well.  And there is no where I've gone or anything I've done that God hasn't lifted me out of it.  I have celebrated her book, Get Out of that Pit and I also celebrated Elevation Church's album Kingdom Come.  I've loved those this year, as they have reminded me of God's promises.

Last Thursday night at Chris Tomlin's Christmas concert, Louie Giglio reminded me one more time about how good God is.  He made a statement about how there were people in the room who were dreading this Christmas.  That for some, it would be the first Christmas without a loved one.  For some, it would be Christmas without a job.  For others, the first Christmas with cancer.  For others still, the first Christmas alone since a divorce.  But God became flesh and dwelt among us - and that no matter where we are, there is no place that His arm can't reach us.

Anyway, what a lot of rambling.  All that to say, part of what God does is heal the brokenhearted.  He gives us beauty for ashes.  Joy instead of sadness.  And I'll let that be my story and testify to how He always does that for me.