Finding Beauty in the Mess

There's a patch of overgrown, rocky, piled-up mess at Whisper Mountain Camp. Not the most lovely of spots we have to be sure, but the tractor rests and the ugly broods because a plan, a dream goes unfulfilled.

For one reason after another, the grand vision of a swimming hole hasn't become a reality. This, my friends, is disheartening. Imagine screaming teenagers being launched from a blob, water competitions like something seen on Wipe Out, and a zip line zipping a person into the middle with a splash! Imagine people on the banks, soaking in the simple quiet of nature and listening for that life-giving quiet whisper of the personal God.

But under every rocky mess crouches patches of beauty. Within every pile of ugly breathes life unexpected. There are hints of what should be all around, buried under the weeds and surrounded by thorny brush. The water trickles in a path through the middle of the mess and water plants sink their roots deep in the wet. They are the reminder, the hope resting under all that shouldn't be there.

Strolling through the mess recently, I was imagining what could be, what someday will be. Remembering the vision and enjoying the glimpses of beauty found there right now nourished my hope and had me forgetting the mess.

I don't have to tell you about the rocky places of disappointment, unfulfilled plans + dreams, impossible hardships, pain and loss. You know as well as I do how life piles up on a person. But trickling underneath all this is the constant of a loving God who helps us remember His truth, who directs us to embrace the beauty that can be found in the right now and who makes a path through the desert of impossibility. He catches us in His grace and assures us of His presence. He restores hope.

No one really knows when the water hole will take up residence at camp. For now, it doesn't really matter. The mess is breading beauty!