Beauty for Ashes

 

     We mostly missed out on the Mt. St. Helens explosion. We lived in Denver in 1980, out of reach of the early darkness and inches of ash the Northwest experienced. But the volcano is only an hour away from Portland, where Reed is working this week, so we spent Sunday at Mt. St. Helens National Park. Most of the sites for tourists are blocked by snow, but the visitor center is still open. One of the displays lets you drag your finger forward through the decades to show how life gradually returned to a landscape scarred by destruction and ashes. I thought of the following verse:

          Isaiah 61:3      To console those who mourn in Zion,
                                  to give them beauty for ashes,
                                  the oil of joy for mourning,
                                  the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
                                  that they may be called trees of righteousness,
                                  the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

     Life did not return with drama like the explosion that destroyed it. Creatures that survived because they live underground, gradually crept out. Plants took root, even if they had to grow new ones to do it. Life returned slowly, one day at a time. It is a good illustration of spiritual life. When we see a loved one living in destruction, we want a Damascus road change. We want it to happen right now, if not yesterday. We want the ashes swept out and sturdy trees of righteousness growing in their place, but that didn't even happen to Paul after the original Damascus road. Paul spent three years being taught by Jesus and ten years serving in the church at Antioch before God called him into missionary service. To endure the imprisonments, beatings, shipwrecks etc. Paul needed deeply rooted faith. What we humans keep forgetting is--God is not in a hurry. Spiritual renewal, like nature's cycle, comes in its appointed time. Barely noticeable, beneath the ashes, God is planting beauty.