BEAUTY FOR ASHES

 

“Some Church members feel weighed down with discouragement about the circumstances of their personal lives, even when they are making sustained and admirable efforts. Frequently, these feelings of self-disappointment come not from wrongdoing, but from stresses and troubles for which we may not be fully to blame.

“Atonement of Jesus Christ applies to these experiences because it applies to all of life. Saviour can wipe away all of our tears, after all we can do. In Luke 4:18, Jesus quotes part of a passage from Isaiah that describes the heart of His ministry. The Isaiah passage reads:

“The Spirit of the Lord….hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion….beauty for ashes.” (Isaiah 61:1,3)  The Saviour’s Atonement is thus portrayed as the healing power not only for sin, but also for carelessness, inadequacy, and all mortal bitterness.”  (Bruce C. Hafen, “Beauty for Ashes”, Ensign April 1990)

One of the hardest things in life can be the suffering of injustice. It is difficult to imagine and understand that the Atonement of Jesus Christ covers the sins and actions of those who hurt others. I remember some years ago listening to a sister in the Church of her experience with her now ex-husband who chose to leave her and their two sons because “he didn’t want the responsibility of a family anymore”.

This sister prayed in her darkest moments hoping to avert the disaster but the answer she got was not something she wished for. She was given to understand that even though Heavenly Father disapproved of her husband’s actions vehemently, He still loved her husband and had to respect his freedom of choice. Instead of becoming bitter, this sister understood that not even God can interfere in unjust treatment some of us get at the hands of another. This understanding set her on the path of forgiveness which gave her the power to survive.

This story is in stark contrast to the experience of another sister in the Church that I know who could not accept her divorce and who went around to different wards expounding her ex-husband’s faults. She was not looked at in a favourable light by others who found it distasteful and eventually she stopped coming to Church.

Justice comes to all of us for our wrongdoings but it certainly does not come in this life time. This time is the time for repentance and restitution to those we have put in the state of pain and hardship. This is a huge indication of the mercy of Christ. If we were all judged immediately after our wrongdoings without the chance of repentance, we would all be lost.

The beauty that rises from the ashes is one of repentance and saving grace for the perpetrator and one of developing the forgiving Christ-like nature for the victim. This proves unfathomable love of God for all his children who struggle with the weakness of mortality.

“Each of us will taste the bitter ashes of life, from sin and neglect to sorrow and disappointment. But the Atonement of Christ can lift us up in beauty, not only from our own ashes but also from the ashes of him who fathers the rebirth of our spirits. We then soar toward the sun on the wings of a sure promise of immortality and eternal life. Thus may we be lifted up, not only at the end of life but in each day of our lives.

“Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth….giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:28-29, 31) (ibid)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Christ's Light by Land of Dreams)