Beauty for Ashes

Happy Monday to our CFC family;

This morning a watch a short video of the family of Peter and Jackie Halpin along wit their six adult children and other family members standing in front of what once used to be their family home for thirty seven years in California.

What amazed me the most was what they did when they discovered that their beloved home was gone.  As professional singers, they all stood in a circle and with their father conducting, broke out in beautiful harmony as they began to sing praised to God.  It was absolutely breathtaking to hear this beautiful, majestic music in the midst of all the ashes and destruction.

In an interview with a local new outlet, one of the family members was asked how they were handling their loss?  Without any hesitation they responded, “Faith has always been the foundation of our family, and it will continue to be as we navigate forward.”

This comment reminded me of the scripture verse in Isaiah 61:3 where it says that God is able to give, “…beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”

As believers, we must always live our lives with the understanding that our hope and security is never built upon the stuff that we have accumulated over time.  That just like the Halpin family in California, everything around us can be gone in seconds. That this world and all that it offers is only temporal.  But God in his mercy promises that he is able to take our ashes, take our mourning and in ways that only he can, trade them for something beautiful and joyful.

Oh it may not seem beautiful or joyful at that moment, it never does. The pain is real, it’s deep and may seem overwhelming.  Yet for those who trust the Lord, it will happen if you allow Jesus to have access and heal your heart.

As I continued to read this story of the Halpin family, I discovered that beyond their own children, the Halpin’s also had over fourteen grandchildren.  Fourteen people who, Lord willing, will one day have their own families, making their own memories and experience their own challenges.  

For them, I wondered how this memory of the California fire will be told to their families?  Something tells me that it will have a powerful impact.  A memory that they will be able to tell their children how God was incredibly faithful in the midst of pain.  That it was a time when they watched in awe as their parents, their grandparents chose to sing in the midst of their ashes.

Something tells me that this tragedy will be the inspirational factor that will impact these children’s faith for generations to come, and that is definitely a beautiful think in the midst of ashes.

Question: What “ashes” experiences in your life have you seen turn

to beauty?

Have a wonderful week and we’ll see you Sunday!!