Beauty from ashes

The last few days in America have been a whirlwind of events. They were filled with fear, anxiety, hurt, anger, restlessness, death, mourning and ultimately resolve, courageousness and even happiness. But the sting of these former things are still in play. Because of the acts of evil men, there is still hurt, still pain and still questions. The results of these acts are that there are those who will take time to heal; some physically and many emotionally. These acts are at their very core - of evil, for they in themself have torn the veil between life and death for some living, breathing and beautiful Americans. But know this - God still makes good things from the evil deeds of mankind.

My wife’s grandparents were born in Poland in the years preceding some incredibly evil years in our history. Her grandfather ultimately lived into his 90’s and died but a short drive from Boston and Watertown.  But as he took his last breath and went to be with his God, his back still bore the scars of the evil he saw firsthand in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Flossenbürg. The stories of his trials there and the sorrows of separated family still resonate with us even today. When I think of them, I can faintly hear the rumble of my father-in-law’s hungry tummy. I can see him sit as a child beside his mother in a refugee camp in Germany - not knowing if he would ever see his daddy again. And I can hear the quiet song that his mother surely sang to him to quiet his fears.

These are the results of the decisions of evil men. They bring hurt and pain and sometimes even death. But God sees and orchestrates good even from the deeds of evil people. These brave Polish souls stood strong in the face of evil. And they clung to the God they knew had ultimate control over evil. As the days, weeks, years and decades went by, God began doing what He does best. He began to take the pieces and weave them into a new garment.

Some six decades later, that same Polish prisoner sat at a table in San Antonio, Texas - a table placed for the elite. As the wedding photographer’s video camera panned to him, he looked at the joy around him and at his granddaughter, her vibrant figure dressed in white, and spoke the words we still have on film thirteen years later – “I love him and her.” A man crushed but not destroyed, who endured the pain and sorrows of evil men and saw the joy of God’s handiwork as the Great Artisan.

“I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.”  Ecclesiastes 3:10-15 NLT

Evil has existed since the dawn of our time. Each of us struggles with it in some way. And some of us are even driven by it; driven to do the worst of acts. This same evil will not stop until the final day when God say “enough!” Until that day, we each have but one short life to live. Whatever evil is enacted upon us in these days cannot get around the vantage point of God. His work is to create beauty from the ashes. “…he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning…” Isaiah 61:3 NLT)

 “We must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end, and therefore must judge nothing before the time.” Matthew Henry

“…but we must wait till the veil be rent, and not arraign God’s proceedings nor pretend to pass judgment on them.” Matthew Henry

The word “fear” in verse fourteen of Ecc 3 is more about “awe.” The Hebrew “yara” means – “to stand in awe of, reverence, honour, respect, to cause astonishment and awe, to inspire reverence or godly fear.” In all that transpires in this life, God wants us to revere Him as the caretaker of all things and all events. He wants us to recognize that, through good or bad events, He is the only One who can see every facet of life – past, present and future. He made time and He can shape it. Therefore, no bad aspect of this life can stand without being shaped into good by God. His eternal plan is for good. So He shapes even the evil of this life into good. For that godly intent, and in His capacity as the Almighty, we should stand in awe before Him in great respect. We should trust that He is working things all out for our good.

In the meantime, let us enjoy the good in life. Let us eat, drink, love and care for those who God has allowed to walk beside us. Hold tight to the good and trust Him with the bad. He is in control. And one day He will command the sound of the trumpet, evil will meet its end, the good of God will reign forever and we with Him in the glory of His presence! Amen.