Today is a "snow day" for the school where I am a teacher. My day off has allowed for some valuable time of reflection and reading adoption materials. In my reading, I came across a devotional created by Shaohannah's Hope entitled "Beauty for Ashes" by Kerry Hasenbalg. Her scripture was Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. . . He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. . . to give them beauty for ashes. . .
that He might be glorified.
In Kerry's devotional she writes about how the word "ashes" in the Bible is used to represent pain, sorrow, and death. She elaborates further:
"The Word tells us that Jesus Christ was sent to replace these ashes with beauty, and through working in the area of adoption, I have witnessed literally hundreds of lives completely transformed in this way. Where once were found lives mired in the ashes of miscarriage, infertility, and the death of children, there now can be found through the miracle of adoption the beauty and blessing of children. Where once we saw children's lives devastated by abuse, abandonment, and the death of parents, now we find happy children blessed with loving parents. In adoption the fearful become beloved, the scorned become adored, the nameless become cherished, the lonely become the laughing, and death becomes life abundant. In adoption ministry we can clearly see God taking ashes from here and ashes from there and making something truly beautiful from them."
And the Scripture which stood out to me today in a whole new way since traveling this road of "adoption" is Isaiah 43:19 which says:
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Thank you, Lord, for this word from you! Amen! May it be so.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. . . He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted. . . to give them beauty for ashes. . .
that He might be glorified.
In Kerry's devotional she writes about how the word "ashes" in the Bible is used to represent pain, sorrow, and death. She elaborates further:
"The Word tells us that Jesus Christ was sent to replace these ashes with beauty, and through working in the area of adoption, I have witnessed literally hundreds of lives completely transformed in this way. Where once were found lives mired in the ashes of miscarriage, infertility, and the death of children, there now can be found through the miracle of adoption the beauty and blessing of children. Where once we saw children's lives devastated by abuse, abandonment, and the death of parents, now we find happy children blessed with loving parents. In adoption the fearful become beloved, the scorned become adored, the nameless become cherished, the lonely become the laughing, and death becomes life abundant. In adoption ministry we can clearly see God taking ashes from here and ashes from there and making something truly beautiful from them."
And the Scripture which stood out to me today in a whole new way since traveling this road of "adoption" is Isaiah 43:19 which says:
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
Thank you, Lord, for this word from you! Amen! May it be so.
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