Beauty From Ashes: Transforming Pain Into Purposeਨਮੂਨਾ

When God Enters Our Broken Places

I'll never forget the season when my life felt like nothing but ashes. Painful years that included family dysfunction, sexual abuse, and my own poor choices as I tried to cope left me feeling disqualified from anything beautiful or meaningful. I was that person trying to perform for love, hiding behind masks, turning to secret addictions—all while loving Jesus but feeling utterly broken.

Maybe you know that feeling. Maybe you're there right now, looking at the ashes of dreams, relationships, or hopes that have burned to the ground. Here's what I've learned: God doesn't avoid our ash heaps. He enters them.

When I finally let God into those broken places—really let Him in, not just the cleaned-up version I thought He wanted to see—everything began to change. He didn't recoil from my mess. Instead, He knelt down in the ashes with me and began the beautiful work of transformation.

Your pain, your brokenness, your "disqualifications"—these aren't obstacles to God using you as an artist. In His hands, they become the very materials He uses to create something beautiful. Every scar becomes a story. Every wound becomes a well of compassion. Every ash heap becomes the soil for new growth.

Creative Prayer Exercise: Find a quiet space and hold a piece of your art material—clay, a paintbrush, a pen. As you hold it, tell God about one area of brokenness in your life. Don't clean it up. Just be honest. Then listen. What is He speaking over those ashes? Write or sketch what you hear.

Prayer: Father, I bring You my ashes today—the broken dreams, the wounds, the places where I feel most disqualified. Thank You that You don't turn away from my brokenness but enter into it with me. I invite You into every wounded place. Begin Your beautiful work of transformation. Show me how You want to create beauty from these ashes. In Jesus' name, Amen.