"The Good" That Makes "The Bad" and "The Ugly" Something Beautiful

I'm just going to be very frank at this point. The thing that inspired this post was ugliness. Straight up ugliness.  More specifically though, I am referring to myself. Now, don't jump to conclusions and freak out here. I'm not one stare at a mirror and look down on myself and tell myself how ugly I am. I am created in God's image and am fearfully and wonderfully made. In me, however, is an ugly that goes way way beyond the surface, beyond what's skin deep. This is a heart issue. A flesh issue. Or more so, simply, a lack of Jesus issue.

I was pondering/reflecting on my own character and although I've always known I was a sinner, my sin began to become more and more apparent to me. ("Your mom's a parent." Haha, little inside joke, hopefully I have at least one of you insiders reading this.) It was one afternoon in a coffee shop that I was sitting with my discipler discussing our bible study that had really hit me when reading it just earlier that morning. It touched on areas of my life where I had really been struggling and they were brought to my attention then brought into the light with her. It was the combination of that and a time earlier that week when I was sitting outside reading the book One Thousand Gifts, just as I am now, that I regained that mindset. The chapter I was reading was talking about how Jesus transfigures all things and turns them into something beautiful. As I sat on a lawn chair in my backyard, I looked around and saw the beauty of the nature that was surrounding me. It ALL comes from Jesus. I see His creation and rant about how beautiful it all is. That is just a small reflection of who God is though. How much more beautiful must the creator Himself be? I may be an ugly, wretched sinner but there is joy in all of this. Jesus makes all things beautiful and He is the only beauty that is in anything. He is the only true good in anything, including myself.

"Yes, Father, You long to transfigure all, no matter how long it takes. You long to transfigure all."
"That which is perceived as ugly transfigures into beautiful."

These lines from the book show who Jesus is and His ability to make all things beautiful. Even He himself became ugly. That is the Gospel. He came to this ugly world to save us ugly sinners, giving us a chance to become something beautiful, if we choose to let him live in/through us.

John 4:4-"Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."

Isaiah 53:2-"...he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him."

"Isn't this the crux of the gospel? The good news that all those living in the land of shadow of death have been birthed into new life, that the transfiguration of a suffering world has already begun. That suffering nourishes grace, and pain and joy are arteries of the same heart-and mourning and dancing are but movements in His unfinished symphony of beauty. Can I believe the gospel, that God is patiently transfiguring all the notes of my life into the song of His Son?...God is always good and I am always loved."-Ann Voskamp, author.

There you have it. Jesus longs to make all things lovely and he will...with time. He will take the darkest, ugliest areas of the deepest part of our hearts and eventually make it into something beautiful. Why? I don't believe there is any other explanation besides the fact that He loves unconditionally and without any real reason. We don't deserve even an ounce of it yet his love reaches far far beyond our comprehension! The more I see my sin the more I realize just how much I need a Savior and the more I fall in love with him. He is "The Good One" and he takes the bad and ugly like me, you, and our brother's uncle and makes us something beautiful. There is hope. And his name is Jesus.