Beauty from pain

"Have you ever noticed that flowers 
smell more fragrant after the rain?"

"For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden 

with Christ in God."Colossians 3:3 (NLT)

"A bruised reed He shall not break,

and a smoking flax He will not snuff out."

Matthew 12:20 (NIV)

I read somewhere recently that "valleys are the most fertile places on earth" and I believe this may be true in our lives also. 

Sometimes, God leads us along mountain tops where life is 'rosy and bright'.  Other times, He leads us down into the valley; and it's in this fertile place that God speaks tenderly to us through the Holy Spirit who gently cultivates our hearts creating something beautiful for His glory.

I've found time and again that it's in the valleys of life that that God grows my patience and trust in Him.  Although painful times, they have become beautiful too.  

The poem below —"Beauty from Pain"—was written during one such 'valley experience'

When life is all rosy

and seems at it's best

Lord may I be mindful

That in You I'm blessed.

But if things don't turn out

as I'd like them to be -

Please help me remember

my life's hid in Thee.

And just as there's sunshine

There's often-times rain,

Yet God works
through all things

birthing beauty from pain;

So may nothing be wasted

In my walk with Thee;

May others be blessed Lord

and see Jesus in me.

© Wendy McCallum

                                                                     

Wendy is originally from the North West coast of Scotland, near Glencoe. She trusted the Lord Jesus as Saviour in November 1986 during a Faith Mission Campaign.