Beauty for Ashes

Hey all, I have something on my heart today. It's amazing how the Lord speaks through things you would never imagine. I was watching a video on Ashley Smith's blog earlier, and for those of you who don't know her story you should check it out, on my page there's a box that says "bring the rain", click that and it'll take you to her page and story. Anyway, I was watching a video on her blog and she went in for an ultrasound and found that her baby girl had numerous abnormalities that were fatal. She knew she would carry this baby who was dying inside of her. And the video showed right after her birth and she died within a half hour. But what was so amazing was seeing Ashley (the mom) and her husband holding, kissing and adoring this baby, and their reaction when she died is a true testimony of God's peace. And I got to thinking how that touches me on such a personal level because I can imagine holding my newborn, but giving her back would be unimaginable. But that's the cusp. She not mine. It's not about me. It's always about Him. And I thought how broken the heart of the Father must have been to create in Mary His own son knowing He would die. Knowing he would suffer and be rejected. How poignant this is for me. I seem so think God doesn't understand how we hurt and how life is so hard sometimes. Yet He knows and can sympathize more than we can imagine. He's lost a child. He's had to create and knit His child in the womb knowing He was being created to suffer and die. But His love for us surpassed the pain, the insurmountable pain that must have withheld. And that's the true beauty of His love story to us. That in the darkest, ugliest, most lonely and painful hours of our lives, He can make beautiful if we reflect Him. He makes beauty from ashes!

"To console those who mourn in Zion, to give 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 may be glorified" Isaiah 61:3

~Blessings in His name~