Beautiful Things

*I wrote this a few years ago and found it to be encouraging today!

I read the Magic Treehouse series to my class each year, by Mary Pope Osborne.  I love them because they teach historical lessons as the kids travel through time and have to find clues along the way.  The kids love them, and so do I!  We were on book 19, and I have read these many many times, but I marked this one page that I read to the kids because it held such meaning for me! The kids had been in a jungle and encountered a tiger.  They had to find a gift on their trip, and the gift given to them this time was a lotus blossom.  Here is the part that struck me so much.  Here one of the characters finds the gift:  
 
"Annie jumped up and hurried to the stream.  She pulled at one of the large flowers.  It came up, muddy root and all..."  Then, their guide said to the kids, " This perfect lotus blossom grows from dark, thick mud....its beauty cannot live without its ugliness...do you understand?..."  
 
(The kids had just helped save a hurt tiger, and then the tiger tried to come after them.  They got away, but their guide told them this): "When you saved the tiger, you saved all of him...You saved his graceful beauty-and  his fierce, savage nature.  You cannot have one without the other."   
I read it a couple of times to my class, said it meant a lot to me, and I put a paper clip in it.  Jesus has saved us from the ugliness of our sin, but is this, our past, that if we draw from the strength of our roots, all of that muddiness can help us turn our lives into something beautiful.  I just LOVE what this analogy has done for me!!!!!!!!!!
 
I am learning to accept the things I cannot change, and I am learning to have courage to accept responsibility for the things I CAN change in my life and really learn the difference between the mud and the beauty.  I heard a song by a band called Gungor.  You can hear the song by copying this link into your web browser. http://youtu.be/nJ4yNYY1hHM If you haven't heard this song, it is BEAUTIFUL!   They repeat the chorus a lot.  Here you go!
 
Beautiful Things- by Gungor
 
All this pain
I wonder if I'll ever find my way?
I wonder if my life could really change at all?
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found?
Could a garden come up from this ground at all?

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

Oh, you make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new
Making me new

You make beautiful things
(You make me new)
You make beautiful things out of the dust
(You are making me new, making me new)

You make beautiful things
(You make me new)
You make beautiful things out of us
(You are making me new, making me new)
Visit http://www.xtralyrics.com

Oh, you make beautiful things
(You make me new)
You make beautiful things out of the dust
(You are making me new, making me new)

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust

You make me new, You are making me new
You make me new, You are making me new