One of my favorite movies of all time is "La Vita E Bella" (Or "Life is Beautiful" - picture Roberto Bennigni catapulting over chairs at the Oscars). It's about an Italian family in World War II, and I love it not only because I love anything Italian (Buongiorno Principessa!), but in light of Pastor Sean's message today, it reminded me that God makes ALL things beautiful in HIS time. That means:
He brings beauty of War. No matter your views on the wars in Iraq, Uganda, or any other country ravaged by fighting, He will make that beautiful. When I watch the news and I am devestated at humanity's depravity, I must remember that He makes all things beautiful in His time.
He will take diseases, disabilities, sickness, and pain and make it beautiful.
He takes bratty, selfish, mean-spirited children (can you tell I've been watching "Super Nanny"?) and turns them into humble, loving, serving, God-honoring individuals.
He takes an overweight, dorky, bad-hair, buck-teeth, chipmunk-cheeked, acne-ridden, sarcastic, mean, scared, defensive Jr. High girl and turns her into - me! He makes all of His children beautiful inside and out according to *His* standards of beauty.
Subset of that: He will make zits, bad hair days, personal conflict, the future, the unknown, hurt feelings, loneliness, "not being cool," rejection, broken hearts, shattered dreams, and frustration beautiful in HIS time!
He will sanctify students who are truly saved. Amidst and through their mistakes, immaturities, faulty theology, and sin, He will, in His timeline, make them into His image.
He will take your yearnings in life and make them beautiful by making them for HIM!
He brings beauty to long-suffering, loss, and death.
Ultimately, He makes beautiful what we think ugliest - death. We fight death with everything in us, but He transforms it to be the greatest of Homecomings. In essence, Christ even makes evil beautiful in His time by working all things to His glory! Christ longs to bring you to Himself, just as a groom longs to take his bride home after the wedding! God is so good, and makes things so beautiful, that at death our darkness becomes light, our body is transformed, and a beauty we cannot comprehend will fill every ounce of our new beings because GOD is that beauty!!
7 comments:
Don't cry for me Argentina, because that post was beautiful...in its time.
That was amazing! You're very good with examples. Somehow pretty much all the reacuring examples that get impounded into my head come from you! Thanks!
SKH- Who in the world is Argentina?
Wow. Very good post, Leila. I love Life is Beautiful too...
Thanks ya'll - you're beautiful people :). Sarah! I'm tying you down and forcing you to listen to "Evita" ....not to mention Argentina is a country...sheesh.
Hi Leila! This quarter is insane, but hopefully I'll make it a few more months. The good news is.... (drum roll) I'm staying in Seattle for the summer! That means when you aren't off traveling and having fun we have to hang out.
Dios te bendiga!
Elfie
Leila,
It's sometimes hard to imagine how the things that seem ugly today all have the capacity to be beautiful someday, isn't it! And yet even some of what is probably the direct or indirect result of man's fall in Eden seems still to hang onto some amazing beauty, such as fallen leaves from a tree, or thorns on a rose, or wrinkles on an old lady, or the way she toddles down the street with her cane, or the jaggedness of mountains that probably emerged in the flood...it's a mystery to me. Thanks for your post. It brings beauty to the time that I am up, unable to sleep! Uh, Ciao!
Ok. But why doesn't SK want a country crying for him? Not that it even could, seeing as it's a hunk of land.
And who is Evita?
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