I was on the phone with one of my dearest friends the other night, and she was telling me about a family with less than ideal circumstances being pregnant again. Their baby is going to be born with some mighty odds stacked against her. Telling me about this, my friend said something that has been overtaking my mind these last few days.
I guess she will have to make a beautiful life because she’s not being given one.
Something about the idea – make a beautiful life – resonates deeply with me.
Isn’t that what we all vie for? Beautiful lives?
Lives that people pause to take in. Lives that tell a good story. Lives that mean something.
Few of us are given beautiful lives. Few of us ever make them.
In this season of Advent, of waiting with eager and expectant hearts for a Savior, I think about His life.
I’m not sure He was given a beautiful life.
Born into a manger, with stinky animals all around, to some girl that was probably shunned by society for being pregnant with a child that wasn’t her fiance’s.
I’m not sure He was given a beautiful life.
But, man, did He make one.
His life ended in a gruesome death.
But a death that led to resurrection.
A death that led to hope.
A death that led to life.
So that we can all make beautiful lives.
What worse odds are there than death?
But He overcame.
He came for us.
A beautiful life is possible.
It’s a daunting task to make a beautiful life. But there is a Life that defines beauty itself. And He is singing over us. He calls us to Himself. This Life fills our lives with colors, songs, hues, poetry, shading, lights, dancing. This Life offers beauty uncreatable by human hands. This Life is ours. Today and for the rest of forever if we want it.
See, what’s really amazing about making a beautiful life is that the most beautiful lives are actually remade. And that isn’t work we have to do ourselves.
Make a beautiful life.
Let the heart of the Maker of the heavens, the earth, every star, every gangly giraffe, every tossed wave, and every gnarly tree captivate you and show you what He’s always made you to be.
Let Him work with you to build something good. To create something new. To make something beautiful.
Make a beautiful life.
Few of us are given beautiful lives. Few of us ever make them.
All of us are offered them.
We all want lives that people pause to take in.
That tell a good story.
That mean something.
And maybe that starts when we pause to take in the very best Story that means everything.
The Story of a baby with all the mightiest odds stacked against Him. The Story of a baby who made His life beautiful. The Story of a baby who makes yours and mine beautiful too.
Merry Christmas.
Enjoyed this a lot, Christine. Wonderful perspective.