The Ugly and the Beautiful – what we see ugly is beautiful to Christ. The ugly beautiful – its French word is d'un beau affreux.   Everything has the exquisite fingerprints of God in it.  Everything, even the ugly, has Christ’s beauty in it.   With Jesus's eyes, we have the astonishing opportunity to daily love the unlovely into loveliness for everything even the dark things in our lives has the traces of God in it.

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Through the lens of Christ, the ugly would be beautiful and we see it like that if we get closer to God.

Contemplative simplicity: it isn't a matter of circumstances; it's a matter of focus. 

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Psalm 27:8, "My heart says to you, 'Your face, Lord, I do seek.’"   God is always good and we are always loved, even when what He gives may appear ugly. 

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John 1:16, “For out of His fullness [the superabundance of His grace and truth] we have all received grace upon grace [spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing, favor upon favor, and gift heaped upon gift].”

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Grace is what the full life is full of.  All is grace because God is transfiguring all glory to Christ alone to make us more to the image of God.

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God puts us in the dark because He is passing by.   Exodus 33:22-23 “And it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”

 

The hard discipline is to give thanks for all things at all times because God is all good. The hard discipline is to number grief as graces, veiled graces.  All is grace only because Christ is transfiguring all.

God is always good and we are always loved.

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Personal Reflection: 

How does looking at the ugly and hard situations of life through the lens of Jesus change the way we see?

What stands in the way of thankfulness when times are hard?  What can help us enter into thanks even when things seem dark and ugly around us?

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Our Prayer:

• Thank God that He is the One who can truly help us find beauty in that which seems only ugly in the world’s eyes.

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• Pray for courage to walk back into the valley of conflicts and struggles in the home, office place, in the Church, in the community.

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• Ask the Spirit to help you stay committed and focused to find the beauty in the seemingly ugliness of the world.

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• Invite God to help you notice that He is near.  Pray for grace when you miss His presence and later have to say, ‘God was right here and I did not even notice.’

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• Pray for strength to wrestle well and hold on to God with all your might.