Reaching for Beauty...in a Sea of Ashes

 

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Then I saw in heaven another marvelous event of great significance.  Seven angels were holding the seven last plagues, which would bring God’s wrath to completion.  I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name.  They were all holding harps that God had given them.  And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: 

“Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty.  Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.  Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name?  For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”  Revelation 15:1-4

Peter Marshall, in a sermon called The Risk of the Reach, told of a young German soldier in a dirty, bloodstained uniform standing on the firing step of a trench in World War I.  It was an early summer afternoon, and the battlefield was quiet. The young soldier had a wistful, faraway expression on his face.  Suddenly a butterfly fluttered into view and alighted on the ground almost at the end of his rifle.  It was a strange visitor to a battleground, so out of place.  But it was there, a gorgeous creature with wings as gold splashed with ruby coloring, swaying in the warm breath of spring.  As the war-weary youngster watched the butterfly, he was no longer a private in a field-gray uniform.  He was a boy again, fresh and clean, swinging through a field in sunny Saxony, knee-deep in clover, buttercups, and daisies.  

That strange visitor to the front-line trench recalled to him the joys of boyhood, when he had collected butterflies.  It spoke to him of days of peace.  It was a symbol of the lovelier things of life.  It was the emblem of the eternal, a reminder that there was still beauty and peace in the world.

He forgot the enemy a few hundred yards across no man's land.  He forgot the danger, deprivation, and suffering.  He forgot everything as he watched the butterfly.  He reached out toward the butterfly; his fingers moved slowly, cautiously, lest he frighten away this visitor to the battlefield.  But showing one kind of caution, he forgot another.  The butterfly was just beyond his reach, so he stretched, forgetting that watchful eyes were waiting for a target.  He brought himself out slowly, with infinite care and patience, until he had just a little distance to go.  He could almost touch the wings that were so lovely.  And then a sniper's bullet found it's mark.  The stretching fingers relaxed, then dropped flat on the ground.  For the private soldier in field-gray, the war was over.  There is always a risk when one reaches for the lovelier, finer, more fragile things of life.  And that is what worship is – reaching for the beautiful.^[1] 

Such is the aged apostle John’s vision of the ashes of earth’s martyrs encountering the beauty of Heaven’s glory.

For You Today 

There is much about our journey through life which speaks of both ashes and beauty.  Apostle Paul reminds us to think on the lovely things; Prophet Isaiah says those lovely things are in store for all who love Christ:

To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair.  In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.  Isaiah 61:3

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Bob Raby Belmont Church of Christ, Dayton, Ohio.