I love that last line especially: Beautiful people do not just happen.
I guess the question we might ask ourselves during this time is: What kind of people are we becoming as we go through all this? Are we becoming more cynical and jaded and critical of everyone and everything? Harder to get along with? Bitter?
Or is there a sensitivity that is emerging in our life, a compassion, a gentleness, a generosity? Are we allowing God to work in us? Is a kind of beauty being formed?
There's an old story about Auguste Renoir, the French Impressionist painter, who was essentially confined to his home for the last ten years of his life because of progressively worsening rheumatoid arthritis. It affected his hands more than anything. They became these rigid, vicelike claws that forced him to change his technique and caused a great deal of pain when he painted.
But he continued to create his art each day. One of his friends was visiting his home and watched him work, fighting torturous pain with his deformed hands as he performed each brushstroke. His friend asked, "Why do you continue to paint when you are in such agony?" And Renoir replied, "The pain passes, but the beauty remains."
My prayer for you today is that God will be forming some beauty in your life, even as we struggle through this, and that the beauty will remain long after.
Grace and Hope to you,
Pastor Duane
