About love
We can count on love to make a difference. I wrote a note to myself in my journal a long time ago and I think of it often, it says, if you are failing at something, add charity. There are other gifts, other talents, but eventually they will not be needed, and we will be left with the love that we have been willing to cultivate and give away.
The ultimate trade
There is a beautiful play on the words and sounds here in Hebrew at the end of Isaiah that we miss out on in English. The phrase, “give unto them beauty for ashes” in Hebrew is “peer” for “epher.” It means an ornamental headdress or a garland you put on your head (beauty), for ashes.
He will trade me beauty for ashes, but I have to have faith in him to make the trade. I have to be willing to come to him with my regrets, my broken heart, my sorrow, and he promises to trade that for strength and beauty. It takes time, and sometimes it takes many years for the trade to be complete, but the trade does happen if we trust in him to make it…