Beauty and Ashes

Today my life was a cornucopia of emotions. This morning, my attention was drawn to pictures of outer space taken by the Hubble Spacecraft. The images are fabulous. Everyone knows what space looks like, right? Go outside on a clear night and look up. Black sky with little white dots. That has been my experience for well, uh, for many years. (we don’t have to count how many years)

It becomes evident that “our experience” is in no way the final word on reality. Something may look one way, and those who have observed it declare vehemently that this is the way it is and the only way it is. However, one should not be so sure. The big picture may present a totally different reality.

Back to the Hubble, the pictures taken by this spacecraft are breath-taking and include a gorgeous array of colors and shapes. There are very few black and white things in God’s creation; so why would I think space would be that way. There are beautiful sights with colors similar to a sunset in varied shapes and textures.

Looking at where we fit into that scheme, we are creatures on a tiny speck of dust. And yet, the great Creator loved us human creatures enough to come to that tiny speck and live here and die here. Unfathomable! The only emotion I can respond with is awestruck praise for immeasurable greatness. That was morning.

The afternoon brought the other end of the spectrum of emotions. I learned of a horrible tragedy which struck a family in a nearby town. A fire broke out in their home and two young girls, a baby boy, and their mother lost their lives. The surviving children lost everything. While I did not know the family personally, we do have connections with them. The catastrophe brought immense sadness.

This evening, as I was sitting outside of dance class with one granddaughter waiting for the other to finish, the cell phone rang. The little girls’ mother had fallen and was on her way to the hospital for x-rays. Many prayers and texts later, we learned that she had a fractured fibula and would be on crutches for a time. My other daughter, son, and a good friend had gone with her to the emergency room and were a great help to her.

Again, more emotions. It was a day literally of beauty and ashes with an injury thrown in. The little girls and I ate cold cheeseburgers, and my husband just got home with a lukewarm cheeseburger in his hand. Sigh!

What a day! Yet, may He be glorified!

♫ He gives me “beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness;
that we might be trees of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD,
that He might be glorified.”

Isaiah 61:3