Beautiful Things

I LOVE this song.  We sing it at church.  Scroll way down to the far right and pause my music player so you can hear the song. 
The reason I'm showing this is because Beautiful Things is on my heart.  I woke up and had the idea to post about this today.  You see, the redemptive work of Jesus makes beautiful things out of dust.
Isaiah 61:3 says

...to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.






Picture this precious sight with me.  I'm sitting in our usual spot in the worship center at church.  A fairly new family is in front of this.  We are singing this song and I'm looking at the family seated right in front of me.  The couple, in their mid 40's, were infertile and childless until recently.  They adopted a sibling set of 4 from the state of Texas.  The middle girl, age 9, was singing with huge expressive brown eyes, a smile on her face "You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of dust."  OH MY, my heart was melting!  Here was the perfect beautiful things story.  Who adopts 4 siblings from the foster system?  Nobody!  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find forever families for 4 kids?  What a sweet sweet testimony.  The Bible is full of God taking the sad and impossible and turning them into Beautiful Things!  Esther--an orphaned Jew--became a queen and saved her people.  Abraham and Sarah--an old childless couple--fathered a new  nation.  Joseph--sold into slavery--imprisoned falsely--became second ruler in Egypt and saved his people.  David--a king who had an affair and murdered someone--became "a man after God's own heart" and was a great king.  My own little neice, neglected and malnourished, found her way to my sister and her husband's home through the foster system at age 4.5months.  She is now the sparkling little 2yr old who rules the roost!!  Mike's mother had him as a teenager and struggled to make a sweet and stable home, was and is an incredible mother, and now he has been ministering to teenagers for the past 20 years.

God specializes in making Beautiful Things!!

Last Friday was one of those times.  Solomon, an orphaned teenager from Ethiopia, speaking at Mike's school about the miracles in his life.  He told of how he'd come home(to the orphanage) from school and fling his books on the bed saying "God!  Why should I study, I have nobody who cares if I pass or fail, I have  no future!"  Then, a family in North Carolina said "you are our son, we love you, we support you."  They paid his way to finish high school, brought him to the US and begged a Christian college to give him a full scholarship.  This boy is bright and has a bright future--all because someone cared and God had a great plan for him.  AND, the faculty and students were so touched by his story that several students, teachers, and parents are jumping a plane to Ethiopia over Spring Break to visit the Kolfe Boys Orphanage!!!  Ah-MAZING! 

Share with us your Beautiful Things story!!  Leave it in the comments for others to be inspired by.