How amazing that God would bring such beauty out of blight!
Walking one day through our building at St. Mary’s, I was surprised by a display of beautiful and unusual wooden plates and other wooden objects.
The grain of the wood was intricate, with variegated colors and swirls, and it was different in each item. The workmanship was stunning.
I learned they had been lathed by one of our members, Darrin Prowse. Now, anything Darrin does, whether fixing a ramp or making a skating rink in the swamp, is a work of art because of the spirit of service and perfection of workmanship he invests in it. But I hadn’t realized he created these objects of beauty, too.
When I asked him about it, he told me they came from cherry wood, and that the unusual and beautiful grain was actually the result of disease. The objects were made from giant burls produced by a virus. How amazing that God would bring such beauty out of blight!
Is it possible that he does this with us, too? Is it possible that what seems ugliness, disfigurement, disability, wounding, can actually be transfigured, molded by grace into beauty?
Even the deepest wounds are not stronger than the power of God’s love. Even the deepest wounds cannot keep us from loving. One of the ways healing takes place is when our wounds open us to the pain of others and become a source of understanding and compassion.
“That’s how the light comes in,” to quote the Leonard Cohen song.
We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rm 5:3-5).
