Beauty Among Ashes

Isaiah 61:3  To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

This area of our property is my husband's burn pile. It is where he burns all the tree trimmings we are continually coming up with being we have many trees and shrubs. Well, not as many as we could have being we do not have green thumbs and have about a 50% rate of success. Anyway, he had not had anything to burn for a couple months and the weeds grew. And the petunias grew. And it is pretty in itself. Then, one day on my walk, I saw this butterfly feasting.
It made me think about how sometimes in our lives we seem to be going through a rough place and it seems like we are not 'producing' anything for God, but then we look back and see where we did have growth and others even were blessed by one or the other of our actions as we kept ourselves close to Him and served in our own quiet way through whatever heartache or problem we were having.
It is nice to know that though we may not seem as close to God sometimes, He is always close to us!