1 Samuel 16:7 “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

This week I had a kick in the gut with something that I saw one night when heading back to the apartment after a long day at the hospital…
{I don’t use nor condone this language}

At the time that I saw it, I felt like the breath had been knocked out of me.

Then, I felt saddened for the individual that would go to this great length, to impose their belief on others.

They didn’t have hope.

God let me sit there for about a minute…stunned…then He said, “Listen to my message that is playing on the radio.” It was Gungor’s song “Beautiful Things”. {This YouTube video is awesome!}

Look at some of the lyrics:
All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make me new, You are making me new.
You make Beautiful things out of Us.

The person in that car doesn’t know about the Hope in Jesus that I have. The Healing Power of Jesus. The free gift of Grace with Jesus. That makes me sad.

They don’t know about the Hope that is springing up from this ground.
Yes, there has been chaos, but when we stand on the Words of Jesus then there is Peace in the midst of chaos.

Could a garden come up from this ground at all?

If you know me at all, then you know that God has given me a LOVE for gardening. God has even been using my garden with so many hurting others while I am absent during this harvest season.

God has radically changed my heart and my life through my gardening experiences in the last 4 years. He has boldly spoken to me while pulling weeds…preparing the ground…planting seeds and even reaping the benefits of the harvest.

It’s not easy.

I find great hope that God is in the business of making beautiful things out of the dust and dirt that we are.

The dust of our lives is when we realize that we are nothing without Him.

But in Him….we are Beautiful.

When I look at the empty dirt in my garden – it seems like it is just that…nothing. But inside that dirt there holds so many nutrients, potential and even possibilities for God to perform Miracles. And He is able to perform those miracles when he brings in the bounty of His love and grace.

In My Utmost for His Highest devotional it states:

“My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me. Before I can say, “I saw the Lord,” there must be something in my character that conforms to the likeness of God. Until I am born again and really begin to see the kingdom of God, I only see from the perspective of my own biases. What I need is God’s surgical procedure— His use of external circumstances to bring about internal purification.

Your priorities must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever. Your prayer will then be, “In all the world there is no one but You, dear God; there is no one but You.”

We are going through external circumstances to bring about internal purification.

I don’t claim to always understand it. Nor do I think that God caused these external circumstances…but it sure didn’t catch Him off guard! He goes before us and knows our prayers before we even speak them.

I have played the gizzard out of this song {- a southern slang} this last week as we walked the halls of the hospital. I first heard it 10 years ago when I returned from Shands. In fact, I have used it many times to quiet my girls at night when they are having a hard time falling asleep.

I have not wanted to post it here to share with you, because these words are such a bold proclamation that God has been working in my heart.

Today, it is my heart!

I hope it blesses you this weekend and that you find the Hope of Jesus.