Beauty from ashes

I shared at church this morning a hymn story/testimony of faith…

In the winter of 1876, after attending an evangelistic meeting in Chicago, teacher, evangelist and soloist Philip Bliss was traveling with his wife back to family in Pennsylvania. As their train was crossing over a river the bridge gave way and the train fell into the freezing waters below. Bliss managed to escape but as he realized his wife had been left behind in the burning wreckage, he went back in to the fire in an attempt to save her. Tragically the young couple did not survive.

Among Bliss’s belongings recovered from the wreckage were the lyrics to the hymn “I Will Sing of My Redeemer.”

I think about this horrific accident and the lives that were lost. And yet despite this loss, there was great beauty that came from it. God has used the words of this hymn to minister to many people throughout the years.

Beauty from ashes.

I can relate to this as God has transformed the “train wrecks” of my life and has created beauty from the ashes. After over 9 years of infertility God blessed me and my husband with our two miracle children. Angel adopted at 7 weeks old, and then Caleb born 12 months later, exactly a year to the day of when Angel was legally available for us to adopt her.

Beauty from ashes.

Probably most beautiful though is the work of God in our lives when we are so undeserving. For a number of years I rejected His will for my life. I walked away from my family, friends, and most tragically my faith.  Even in my sin – God was faithful. He was faithful to forgive and through His grace turned my ungodly choices into restoration and healing.

Beauty from ashes. 

Just like the words of this hymn, pulled from the burning wreckage. Wherever you are in your life right now, whatever “train wreck” you are facing, God is there. He demonstrated His great love for us and even in our sin, Christ died for us. He wants to take your pain. He wants to take your sin and shame. The road probably won’t be easy, but He will turn it in to beauty when you release it to Him. And it’s because of His great love that we can sing.

{I Will Sing of My Redeemer}

All that is awesome and then some

The kids new favorite word is “awesome”. Everything is awesome to them.  And then when they start to get sad or mad or complain about something we’ve been trying to remind them of all the blessings in our life (all that awesome). Here are a few things that I think are awesome, aka, ways I’ve been blessed beyond measure!

~Angel’s fashion sense. She’s recently taken an interest in picking out her clothes. This was her ensemble a few days ago. Awesome.

~That same day we took the kids to Toys R Us to just look around. Talk about torture for the poor kids. But it was actually really fun. I took Angel and Pat took Caleb and we let them take as much time as they wanted going up and down the aisles.

Here’s my awesome girl looking at awesome stuff.

~A few weeks ago we visited The Butterfly House which now has a shark/stingray tank! Honestly it wasn’t as cool as I was expecting - you can only touch what they have in the little tank that floats in the big tank. But the kids thought it was awesome.

~My employer was offering tickets to our local baseball team one weekend and so Pat took the kids. I was going to go along but then ditched them at the last-minute. I had some serious browsing I needed to get done. I ended up walking through Big Lots for over two hours. Up and down every single aisle. It was awesome.

Unfortunately my poor husband was plumb wore out when I picked them up. But I did convince them to pose for a picture. Well at least Angel and Daddy did. Caleb was having a meltdown behind the scenes.

Pat said they had an awesome time. At least for the first inning. And then it was 14 trips to the bathroom and “when do we get to go home?” over and over. I think my kids have an awesome daddy!

~We are hoping to read a lot this summer. I think it’s awesome so see my kids reading next to each other. It’s especially awesome when they start “reading” the stories to each other.  Not so awesome when they start using their books as weapons.

~The other morning the kids and I made smoothies. We think smoothies are awesome! Our fridge was pretty bare on this particular day and so all we had for our smoothie was cherries, blueberries, spinach, yogurt, ice and a little milk.

~Smoothies in fancy glasses are extra awesome!  Although the kids didn’t think it tasted very awesome (even though it did!).

~Awesome is ice cream on a fire truck.  We had stopped for ice cream one night awhile back and as we were leaving the fire truck pulled in and all the firemen piled out! Pat pulled back in to the parking lot and went over. This nice fireman let the kids sit up in the truck! It was awesome!

~Awesome is ice cream in a fire truck!

~Awesome is going to the carnival with Papa, Grama, Princess and Prankster! And of course riding in the helicopter!

~The swords they got for pulling a duck out of the water? Not so awesome.

~Grass! Grass is awesome. This is our new awesome apartment. We’re on the ground level on the end (see the arrow). The kids and I drove by today and we have grass! We’re going to have a pretty large area outside our patio all to ourselves. We think it’s going to be awesome!

~My awesome blue-eyed Bubba.

~My awesome Angel Cakes - getting her hair and makeup done for her dance recital dress rehearsal. The actual recital is this weekend!

~Funny pictures are awesome.

~Most awesome of all…

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