.beauty for ashes.

i'll take an unfair exchange. i'd like to trade my ashes in for some beauty.

in Isaiah 61, which grad school prompted me to write a 13 page paper on recently, the writer speaks about trading in ashes for beauty - basically wiping out the things in our lives that resemble ashes (the symbol of mourning & sadness) and trading them for beauty - how gracious is our God!

i love this picture - enough to think i maybe even wanted something remotely symbolizing it in a tattoo and then physically freaked in the tattoo parlor (clearly not a good decision for me), but i do love the metaphor.


here are a few examples of my ashes and the beauty i'd like them to be transformed into...
- confident expectation for uncertainty
- joy for fear
- strength for weariness
- grace for guilt
- security for uncertainty
- purpose for aimlessness
- peace for restlessness

and this just scratches the surface. but the last week or so i've really been faced with the reality of what this means in my life and how i can begin to allow God to make those changes in me.

my prayer this week is that i'll be enabled to start that journey from beauty to ashes , that He will walk with me down this new path of hope and promise, and as i take baby steps and often fall, that He'll pick me up.

in my mind, my new path looks much like the path pictured above - a path that mere months ago was dry and barren, covered with rocks and dirt, now is lined with fully grown yellow flowers and green grass that lead to the most unimaginable destination. oh that i will have the capability to change those things in my life and to grow through them to the vastness the new horizon!