When Ash Becomes Beauty

"Your ash tree has a blight," the landscaper said. "You'll need to remove it."

A few days later, armed with a ladder, a rope and a chain saw, my husband cut the tree down,

piece by piece,

until it was a pile of sticks, leaving the backyard lonely somehow.

I was sad to see the tree go. We had planted it shortly after we moved into the house twenty-five years ago. The ash tree shaded the yard from many Arizona summers, withstanding temperatures over 115 degrees. When the children were small, I filled a wading pool and let the kids splash under the sheltering branches.

Looking at the debris strewn across the yard, I wondered,

could it be possible to take bundled sadnessand turn it into a holder of beauty?

To take a glue gun, an empty glass jar and some broken pieces of lossand in the hands of a creatorshape it into a container of life,

a centerpiece for a wedding,a celebration where vows are spoken?

I like how the finished vase lookslike a flowering tree.

To have and to hold 

For better for worse

For richer for poorer

In sickness and in health

To love and to cherish

Til death us do part.

Somehow it seemed a fitting use of the branches, because God loves to take two lives,

both somewhat broken and flawed

and in his hands shape them into something beautiful

for all to see.

He gives beauty for ashes. - Isaiah 61:3