Beauty From Ashes: Transforming Pain Into PurposeSample

Masterpiece from a Mess

The word "handiwork" in this verse is "poiema" in Greek—it's where we get our word "poem." We are God's poetry, His masterpiece. And here's the breathtaking truth: He creates His masterpieces not in spite of our messes, but through them.

Looking back over my journey—from that wounded, striving young man to where I am today—I can see God's artistic hand at work. Every broken piece has been incorporated into His design. Nothing has been wasted. The very things I thought disqualified me have become integral to the masterpiece He's creating.

This is what God does. He's the ultimate Artist who looks at our scattered ashes and sees the beauty that can emerge. He takes our pain, our failures, our wounds, and weaves them into something that reflects His glory. We become living testimonies to His redemptive artistry.

Your life—with all its scars and stories—is a canvas for God's creative genius. The art you create from this transformed life carries His fingerprints. It whispers to a broken world: "Look what God can do with ashes. Look at the beauty He brings from brokenness."

You are both the masterpiece and the messenger. Your redeemed life and the art that flows from it declare the same truth: our God specializes in resurrection, restoration, and making all things beautiful in His time.

Creative Prayer Exercise: Create a piece that celebrates the masterpiece God is making of your life. Include elements that represent both the ashes and the beauty, the broken and the restored. Let this be a declaration piece—a visual testimony of God's redemptive artistry in your life.

Prayer: Master Artist, I stand in awe of what You're creating in and through my life. Thank You for seeing beauty where I saw only ashes, for seeing a masterpiece where I saw only mess. Continue Your beautiful work in me. Use my life and my art to display Your redemptive genius to the world. May others look at what You've done in me and find hope for their own transformation. I am Your poetry, Your masterpiece, created for good works You've prepared in advance. Use me for Your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Final Encouragement: My friend, your ashes are not the end of your story. They're the beginning of a beautiful redemption narrative that God wants to write through your life and art.

Don't hide your scars. Don't be ashamed of your ashes. They are the very materials God uses to create something stunning. Your willingness to let Him transform your pain into purpose gives hope to others sitting in their own ash heaps.

The world needs artists who create from redeemed pain, who know what it's like to trade ashes for beauty. Your transformed life and the art that flows from it become beacons of hope in a broken world.

Keep creating. Keep healing. Keep allowing God access to every broken place. The masterpiece He's making of your life will take your breath away.

From ashes to beauty, from mourning to joy, this is the gospel lived out through our art.

– Matt Tommey

An Invitation to Go Deeper

If this devotional stirred something in your heart… if you've felt a longing to go deeper into healing, into purpose, and into your creative calling—I want to invite you into something more.

The Created to Thrive Foundations Course is a guided, self-paced journey for Christian creatives who want to renew their minds, connect with God's design for their life and art, and begin creating from a place of freedom and alignment. It's not about doing more—it's about becoming whole. Inside, you'll get powerful teaching, practical tools, and lifelong access to keep growing with the Lord.

Find out more about The Foundations Course here: https://www.matttommeymentoring.com/foundations

You were created to thrive. Spirit, soul, and body. Let's walk this journey together.