“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me,
Because the LORD has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted . . .
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes . . .” (Isaiah 61:1, 3, NKJV).
I don’t know about you, but in the time and place where I live, I don’t encounter ashes very often. Not only do HVAC systems make wood-burning fireplaces irrelevant, but in the Valley of the Sun, we don’t depend on our heaters as much as people in other parts of the world.
However, I have sat around my fair share of campfires, and I have seen the powdery gray residue left over after the fire dies out. The ash is all that remains of what has been burned. It was once wood, but now it’s dust.
Ashes are a symbol of grief. They are a tangible sign of loss. After a campfire, you can’t scoop up the ashes and reform them into wood. When a building burns down, it’s impossible to gather the ashes and turn them back into the structure that was once there. The process of burning reduces something that once had substance to nothing.
We spend our lives doing the opposite of burning; we build and create things of substance. Collectively, we construct civilizations, invent products, and found organizations. Individually, we grow a family, design a home, forge a career, foster relationships, establish a reputation, and pursue future plans.
The reason a fire can be so devastating is because it takes something that cost time, energy, and money to build and reduces it to nothing. This can happen both literally and metaphorically. A marriage can be burned to ashes by the fires of betrayal or divorce. A career can be burned to ashes by the fires of company layoffs or an economic crisis. A relationship can be burned to ashes by the fires of conflict or death. A reputation can be burned to ashes by the fires of unjust accusations or a single moment of compromise. A future can be burned to ashes by the fires of bad decisions or unanticipated circumstances.
When these fires rage through our lives, something we once had is now gone. What once had substance is now ashes. We experience loss, and we also feel lost. We don’t know how to move forward. And if we aren’t careful, we won’t respond to the loss in the way that is best for our souls.
OUR INSTINCTIVE RESPONSES TO ASHES
I can think of three unhelpful ways we tend to respond when something in our lives has burned to ashes.
One response is denial. We are unwilling to face the loss. We refuse the truth of our situation. We are like the cartoon dog in that viral meme who is surrounded by flames and smoke and yet saying, “This is fine.” Instead of heeding the smoke alarms, we ignore reality.
A second response is despair. We utterly lose hope. We can’t take our eyes off the pain and the sorrow, and it overwhelms us. We metaphorically sit in the ashes, completely giving ourselves over to distress and suffering.
A third response is what I call the “spin-team mentality.” We try to manage the crisis by spinning it in a positive light. Did you know that wood ash can be mixed with oil to make a “soap-like” substance? The spin-team mentality is more or less the “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” response–only it’s “When life gives you ashes, make soap!”
In Isaiah 61, we read that “[The LORD] has sent Me . . . to give them beauty for ashes.” Even though this book contains Isaiah’s prophecy, in this particular passage, Isaiah is not the one who is speaking–the Messiah is (Luke 4:17-21). The way Jesus beckons us to respond to life’s losses is to make an exchange with Him.
THE EXCHANGE JESUS OFFERS
An exchange is an act of giving or taking one thing of value in return for another. You give a company your time and energy, and in return, they give you a paycheck. You fill your shopping cart with groceries, and in return, you swipe your credit card.
What’s essential is that the exchange is even. Say what you will about inflation, but there’s no grocery store selling oatmeal for $1,000 and no jeweler selling diamond rings for $10. We sense the ridiculousness of those numbers because they’re wildly unbalanced.
And yet Jesus is offering to exchange our ashes for something beautiful. Ashes are ugly, pathetic, and depressing. Beauty is about loveliness, delight, and radiance. And yet Jesus says, “Give your ashes to Me. In exchange for the ugliness of your situation, I will give you something beautiful–something that will make you glad.”
This is far from an even exchange. And yet it is what our Savior promises.
But how exactly do we go about making this exchange?
THE PATH FROM ASHES TO BEAUTY
First, we need to accept the truth of our situation instead of denying it. Sometimes we default to denial because it’s too scary or painful to look at reality. We don’t want to admit to ourselves or to others that the relationship is broken, the diagnosis is giving us new limitations, or we made a mistake.
But in Philippians 4:8, Paul tells Christians what kinds of things to meditate on, or think about, and the first thing on that list is whatever is true.
This means that, as Christians, we don’t lie, not only to others, but to ourselves. Refusing to look at the ashes does not make them any less real. It might feel more painful in the moment, but the path to exchanging our ashes for beauty is to accept the truth of the ashes and pray honestly to the Lord about them. He already knows. But we can’t make the exchange if we don’t acknowledge the truth.
Second, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus instead of giving way to despair. Acknowledging the truth of the ashes in our lives doesn’t mean that they should define our whole world. Losses like divorce, miscarriage, personal rejection, and financial setbacks are undeniably painful. But when we let the pain overwhelm us, we start to believe the lie that we will never see beauty again–that all of life is gray, ugly, and pathetic.
Psalm 42:11 says, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” The Amplified Bible says, “Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him” (emphasis added), which suggests watchfulness or paying close attention. In essence, the psalmist is telling himself to stop looking at the ashes and look at God and the hope He promises.
Finally, we need to rely on Jesus instead of trying to manage things on our own. Our instinct might be to fight for control of our emotions, reputation, and circumstances because we hate feeling vulnerable, looking weak, and being helpless. We want to prove to ourselves or to others that we have the wisdom, strength, and resources it takes to create beauty out of the ashes.
Scripture calls us to something different:
“This is what the LORD says:
The wise person should not boast in his wisdom;
the strong should not boast in his strength;
the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.
But the one who boasts should boast in this:
that he understands and knows me—
that I am the LORD, showing faithful love,
justice, and righteousness on the earth,
for I delight in these things . . .” (Jeremiah 9:23-24, CSB).
The path to exchanging our ashes for beauty is to let go of control and run to the Lord–the only One with infinite wisdom, unfailing strength, and unimaginable resources. He will meet us in the midst of our ashes with faithful love, justice, and righteousness.
THE BEAUTY WE WILL RECEIVE
What beautiful thing will Jesus give you in exchange for your ashes?
It might mean that He’ll replace the job you lost with an even better one, or restore your broken relationship, or alleviate your chronic pain… but it might not.
Jesus is the Creator, and that means He is much more creative in His approach to replacing our ashes with beauty. The job loss might put you on a completely different path and lead to incredible opportunities you couldn’t have foreseen. The broken relationship might open your eyes to the sweetness of other relationships you wouldn’t have otherwise appreciated so deeply. The chronic pain might one day put you in a unique position to comfort and encourage someone else in their affliction.
The most beautiful thing of all is that when we give Jesus the ashes of our lives, He gives us Himself. He is with us always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). He is the radiance of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3), and as we behold His glory, we will be transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Receiving beauty for ashes is a great exchange, but it is only possible because of an even greater exchange–the greatest exchange imaginable:
“[Jesus,] though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6-8).
Our very souls were once ashes. We were dead in our sin. We were ugly and pathetic. But Jesus exchanged His perfect beauty to become a man of dust and ashes–to die and suffer the punishment our sins deserved–so that we who are dust and ashes can be perfected and made beautiful.
Romans 8:32 says, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If God has taken the ashes of our hearts and made us beautiful in Christ, then what ash heap can’t He make beautiful?
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