Beauty is Found in the Most Unexpected Places

The stars shine brightest against the blackened sky. Oak trees gain their stability and strength by enduring fierce storms. Pearls are found hidden within the depths of the sea. Diamonds are formed under intense pressure and heat under the earth’s crust. In God’s world, beauty is often found in the most unexpected places.

And our faith often deepens and flourishes when everything is against us.

It’s one of the mysteries of life. As we lose pieces of this world, we are more prone to look for a stable foundation, one that leads us heavenward.

Every thread of ours that he untethers from this world is meant to free us to experience the joys of what is more lasting. He shakes us so that only what is unshakable remains.

As my physical health has been shaken, a deeper work of healing has happened result – exposing self reliance and my desire to worship temporary comfort over true spiritual rest. He’s exposed my desire for control, stretching me to trust his sovereign control over my fragile facade of it. He’s shaken my pride to allow dependence on him for my physical, mental, and spiritual life to be sustained. And as earthly solutions have been shaken, trust in his timing and purposes has secured a stronger anchor in the unrelenting storms.

The reality is, as our understanding of his ways are shaken, we are forced to either turn away in unbelief or accept his mysterious ways as greater than our own. As we learn to trust his character over the earthly evidence that seems to say otherwise, we find a rest in unexplainable ways. Even a shaking of our strengths and gifts can bring about a place of greater peace as we learned to surrender those gifts to his purposes rather than our own gain. And more than anything, a shaking of our faith, revealing unwilling sin, draws us into a deeper understanding of our need for the gospel every single day.

Truly, the hardest things in our life can contain some of the sweetest treasures wrapped in black packaging. This is the path of God’s Kingdom, “turning our lament into dancing; removing our sackcloth and clothing us with gladness, so we can sing with him and not be silent”(Ps. 30:11-13).

Home is around the corner,

Sarah

You connect with Sarah on Instagram here. 

To read more of Sarah’s writings, you can purchase a copy of He Gives More Grace: 30 Reflections for the Ups and Downs of Motherhood, Hope When It Hurts: 30 Biblical Reflections to help you grasp God’s purpose in your suffering), Tears and Tossings (short evangelistic resource on how God carries our sorrows), or Together Through the Storms (for married couples navigating the trials of life).