APRIL 25, 2012
Everything Is Beautiful
Read: Joel 2:18-27
I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten. —Joel 2:25
The beauty of the black lacy design against the pastel purple
and orange background grabbed my attention. The intricacy
of the fragile pattern led me to assume that it had been
created by a skilled artist. As I looked more closely at the
photo, however, I saw the artist admiring his work from a
corner of the photo. The “artist” was a worm, and its work
of art was a partially eaten leaf.
What made the image beautiful was not the destruction of
the leaf but the light glowing through the holes. As I gazed
at the photo, I began thinking about lives that have been
eaten by the “worms” of sin. The effects are ravaging. Sin
eats away at us as we suffer the consequences of our own
bad choices or those of others. We are all its victims.
But the photo also reminded me of the hope we have in God.
Through the prophet Joel, God said to Israel, “I will restore
to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten”
(Joel 2:25). And from Isaiah we learn that the Lord appointed
him to “console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty
for ashes” (Isa. 61:3).
Satan does everything he can to make us ugly, but the Light
of the World can make us beautiful—despite Satan’s best efforts.
Sin ravages a fruitful life
When it is not addressed;
But God restores and makes us right
Once sin has been confessed. —Sper
God doesn’t remove all of our imperfections,
but He makes us beautiful by shining through them.
Source: Our Daily Bread 2012
