Beauty for Ashes

I remember the first time I heard the song “Beauty for Ashes,” based out of Isaiah 61:3 which says, “To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes.” That was many years ago and I was just a baby-believer at the time and things like this kind of confused me. I know now to research what I don’t understand and to ask God to clarify those things that I question. When I looked this phrase up, I literally found 3 different interpretations within the first few seconds, one of them being what I’ve thought it meant all this time...that even when things look desolate, we can still find hope.

A friend of mine recently went on a trip to Hawaii. The pictures she shared were amazing, but the one above caught my attention, as well as the caption she attached. Her and her husband were visiting the Volcanoes National Park and she said she was surrounded by blackened devastation and it made her sad. But then she saw this patch of flowers and it gave her hope. Her comment was this, “When our world seems hopeless, take heart…for He has overcome the world.” 

Beauty for ashes. The aftermath of a volcano is pure destruction. Similar to an icy avalanche, whatever is in its path is destroyed. Yet, in the sea of blackness, hardened lava rock everywhere, a plant emerges…and not just any plant, a colorful plant that blooms. How could you NOT find hope in that? What strength and might it must have taken to fight its way up through that rocky surface and emerge triumphant.  

We sometimes find ourselves in that blackened devastation; feeling like all is lost and no good can possibly come from our pain and suffering. Beauty for ashes. God is able to take those ashes…your pain, your hurt, your sin…and turn them around, giving you a “crown of beauty,” so that YOU can have hope and emerge triumphant.