My husband and I recently redid our living room. We bought a new-to-us couch from Craigslist and decided it was time to tackle all the issues our living room had. There was a repair to the ceiling to make, a wall to redo, new carpet to be put down, walls to paint, the list went on! We figured we could get it all done in a weekend. Don’t worry I’m laughing at us too.

It took about a week to get the basics done and we still haven’t brought all of our books, toys, etc back in. We love the room now but let me tell you it looked terrible for a long while. It felt terrible too. We were without a place to sit with paint cans and insulation and dirt everywhere. We ate out every day for that week since our kitchen was full of stuff that we’d stored there temporarily and I couldn’t even get to the stove. Every night we’d move stuff off our bed to go to sleep then pile it back on there in the morning. My husband’s back went out in the midst of it and we wondered why we’d even bothered to try to fix all of these issues.

It took time but eventually all of the issues were fixed and the room looks better than it ever has. We love our space now and can’t imagine having it any other way.

Isn’t that how it goes?

Even the Bible tells us that “there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity” Ecclesiastes 3:1. In verse 11, it tells us that “He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

It may not seem that way right now. You might be facing something that seems so ugly and difficult you can’t imagine any beauty coming from it. The truth is it probably isn’t beautiful-not right now. But in His timing, in the perfect timing, it will be. There will be a day when you can look around and see the beauty in the ashes, the growth of life where there was once devastation.

Spring always seems to give us that promise. After all those months of winter, of the bare trees and ground, the seeds begin to sprout and bloom. Hope arrives- at just the right time.

We have to have patience in order to hold on during the times that are ugly, when nothing seems to be blooming. Sometimes it seems like nothing is going to change, the situation wears on you and it’s difficult to have any faith that it will get better.

In high school, I took an art class and one of the projects we had to complete was an upside down drawing. We had a sketch of a man that we had to turn upside down. We were then supposed to draw the man on our own paper, with only a few inches of paper to be seen. It was hard! I couldn’t see the whole drawing so I had no idea where I was going. It was only inch by inch that I was able to complete the picture. It was painstakingly difficult because I just wanted to turn the drawing right side up and make broad strokes on my paper and be done with it! But in the end, taking the time made for a better drawing.

One day God will reveal our own picture to us and what seemed like random lines and ugliness that didn’t make sense, will be complete. We will see that the time it took was worth it. That it is, in fact, quite beautiful.