Beauty from Ashes

I have fallen in love with gardening.  I was so excited this spring to plant my new plants in my newly tilled garden.  Back in May I was so optimistic my injury was on the mend and I had a summer full of fun, veggies, and quality time with my kids.  I love summer and I was so excited!

So it grieves my heart to see my gorgeous garden look like this.  I have named it the hot mess express because it is so full of weeds, grass, bugs, and more bugs.  My tomatoes have blight, my green bean leaves are so bug-infested they look like swiss cheese.  I am so embarrassed how ugly my garden is.  My heart is broken that I did not get to spend many hours lovingly working and weeding my garden.  My ankle injury sidelined me and hence my garden is the ultimate hot mess express.  

But guess what..... it does not know it is a hot mess.  That little garden is the little engine that could and has no idea how ugly it looks.  It has produced sooo many vegetables this summer.  From the ugly and blighted leaves ....

All this beauty has emerged.  All this goodness not only has fed us healthy awesomeness, but it provided a great multi-generational day this past weekend with four generations under one roof cooking, eating, and sharing around the table together.  Saturday was a beautiful day of love and good food brought to us by the ugliest garden in southwest Virginia.  My grandma (who was recently diagnosed with cancer), came to my house from her nursing home and spent the day here prepping and eating this wonderful food.  Well, to be clear, I am on a scooter and she is in a wheelchair so my Mom did all the big cooking and Mike manned the grill. 

How like our God to use this ugly garden to teach/remind me that beauty does indeed come from ashes.  That is one of our God's specialties....beauty from ashes.  Over and over in the bible there are examples of evil that man tried to conjure up but God brought goodness and beauty from it.  We on this Earth deal with evil everyday-mean people, spiteful situations, jealousy, laziness, .... sometimes it seems like evil is everywhere and navigating it all is so hard and exhausting. 

Yet God is in the business of bringing beauty from the ashes of our hard times.  It is no secret that this has been a rough season for me and this stupid ankle.I will never understand why it has been so hard yet I trust and believe that our God will bring so much beauty from the past few months of despair.  I have spent so much time with Him that I know I will look back on this as precious spiritual growth time for me.  Life is hard folks, but our God has our back.  Everyday.

  ..and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes.  the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.  Isaiah 61:3 

So I do not know about you but I am eagerly waiting for that display of His splendor that is talked about in Isaiah 61:3 I am ready to wear my garment of praise and witness 7 youth getting baptized this upcoming weekend!!!  I am excited to begin another year of morning youth group time at McDonalds that we call Breakfast Club this week with our youth.  I am ready to see how the Lord is going to use this stupid ankle for His glory. 

I am so thankful for the lessons learned from the ugliest garden in Smyth County.  Because of God... beauty can and will come from the ashes.