My sister has this hobby that I call creepy cactus cultivation. She loves finding weird, ugly, exotic cactus plants and coaxing beauty out of them. My sister just sent me photos of a cactus she found recently that she calls a caterpillar for lack of knowing its real name. It’s as ugly as sin, motley brown and looks a bit like animal droppings. Nevertheless, one day, a pod-type extension appeared on it, also ugly. Then, a couple of days later, a gorgeous flower flushed out of the pod! The bloom was delicate and sported pretty colors of pink, purple, blue. It was multilayered and beautiful. I saw the photos and thought, “Wow, this is like people!” Thus, the following thoughts emerged.
Beauty can come from ugly. God finds sin uglier than the caterpillar cactus, but He created a way for humans to pretty-up and produce beautiful flowers through Jesus. We’re all obnoxious in sin without Jesus, but in Him we can overcome ugly and produce great splendor! Paul proudly stated that God “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His Beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Because of this, on a daily basis, we need to take long looks at ourselves in the spiritual mirror and continue transforming ourselves into good, acceptable and brand-new creations in God’s eyes (Romans 12:1-2; 6:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). God excels in creating beauty out of ugly; He’s the master craftsman in this field (Ezekiel 37).
