You Don't Have to See Beauty to Feel It

I was sitting under the hair dryer reading a magazine at the hair salon when I looked up and saw her.  A young girl, whose mom escorted her to the stylist’s chair in front of me.  While she sat down, her mom folded the girl’s walking stick and sat it in the chair beside her so that it was close enough to touch her leg.  

Over the noise of the dryer, I could hear her mom providing a description of a dress saying, “well, it’s a really pretty chevron print, sleeveless, and short - not a long gown.”  The young girl replied, “yes, very short sleeves.”  The stylist then asked the young girl how she would like her hair styled.  “Well, I’d like it curled and up somehow, but I’m not sure of the exact style.”  

I could feel a lump in my throat as I watched her transform from this small framed high school girl with straight, long mousy brown hair to a pretty princess with a half up, half down hairstyle which featured a shimmery hair pin and long beautiful curls.  

It was the night of her high school homecoming dance and she had come to get dolled up for the occasion.  When the stylist had finished her hair, she could not ask her the obvious question, “How does it look?”  Instead, she asked her “How does it feel?”  In silence, the young girl nodded her head with a “yes” type movement and off she went.

My heart ached because her blindness prevented her from being able to see the dress she would be wearing that evening, to fully describe it to someone, and to pick out an exact hairstyle for the event.  But most of all - - she could not see how beautiful she would be at her homecoming dance.

I went home in tears, shared the story with my husband and even caused him a few tears.  Later that day, a friend brought me to the realization that this sweet girl didn’t need to see beauty.  She could feel and sense it. If God formed her very being and she is beautiful in His eyes, why should I be discouraged in any way that He made her life to be just a little different than mine?  

I praise you Lord because your word says I am fearfully and wonderfully made and so is the sweet high school freshman girl who attended her first high school homecoming dance.  I hope she felt as beautiful on the inside as what was ever so present on the outside.

Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. NIV

 

Peace in the Valley

It was found the day she left this earth for Heaven.  In the calm after our tragic storm, there it was sitting beside her Bible on an end table next to her recliner.  Three pages of notebook paper filled with her wonderful all too familiar handwriting.  Her heartfelt words spilled out onto paper.  It was her last writing as she went from this life to Heaven.  It is a great reminder of her love and of the love Jesus has for us.

 

In the Valley He Restoreth My Soul 

 

I’ve been on top of the mountain, though not often, and I’ve been in the valley – and the valley has been my way of life for a lot of my life.  But don’t go getting down now, for the valley isn’t all bad.  In the valley He leads me beside still waters and from my trials there’s victory in Thee.  For it’s in the valley He restoreth my soul.  For if you do not face the truth, there is no grace to keep you where you want to be.  There’s stuff in us that keeps us from being what God would have our lives to be.  Thank God he loves us unconditionally and He’s not through working on me yet.  We learn how to look like we’re performing perfectly but deep down inside we’re struggling with trial after trial.  Uncertainty, fear of change, hostility because we don’t confront the problem at hand.  And with the warfare inside tearing us apart we seem to somehow forget that we’re a King’s Kid.  Oh how much He loves you and me.  In the valley it gets dark and cold and lonely and at times you even begin to wonder “Where are you God?”  Being in the valley is like the three days of Christ’s crucifiction.  Death, burial and resurrection.  So after the shock of your tragedy - comes the depression, but get ready for God is going to resurrect you (if we keep the faith) and say “Here I am God.”  No, there’s not always a rainbow or a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  The gift is the lamb who was slaughtered for our transgressions.  The gift of love and peace in the midst of the storm.

 

I’m finding out there are seasons to our life.  It’s up to us to understand when one season is over…it’s probably because God is getting our attention to tell us it’s time to step to a higher plane if we say “Here I am God.”  For if God be for us, who can prevail against us?

 

So it’s in the valley He restoreth my soul.  God has a plan for my life and for your life.  In order for us to fulfil his plans, we can’t just read a book or listen to a preacher.  It took Moses 40 years of stumbling around the mountain until he learned God’s ways.  For His ways are not our ways.  His thoughts are not our thoughts.  It is all in His time.  I’ve learned that you don’t get too comfortable in one situation because that’s about the time that you hit a bump in the road of life.

 

So I guess what I’m trying to say through all of this is:  choose to have a merry heart for happiness is a choice even in the midst of the storms.  Maybe it has taken me this long of stumbling around the mountain to understand that God really does love ME.  And if He loves me, He loves my children and grandchildren and there is nothing in life that we can’t face together.

 

Today with God’s love and forgiveness, I will choose to be happy and have a merry heart no matter what valley God has for me next.

 

January 10, 2000

Carolyn Elizabeth Lee

 

Jesus called her home on April 27, 2007.  These words about living in the valley were written seven years prior.   She might have needed them as encouragement at the time of her writing, but the truth is, we can all use them as we go through our next valley in life.

 

For her, living in the valley with heart disease for many years, the valley of a massive heart attack literally turned into a mountain top in an instant.  The instant she saw Jesus.

 

What a treasure my mother was here on earth and what a gift these three sheets of notebook paper are that she left behind for us.

There is peace in the valley for you and for me.