31 Beautiful Things, Day 20: Old Friends, Brand New

Back on Day 7 of "31 beautiful things," I wrote about the beauty of a brand-new thing: our new church. But yesterday was one of those days that the old and new came together. Four of us who left our former church at different points came together for lunch. Two of them have been gone 5 or 6 years. We all left in bitterness and with much grief. We had all been terribly hurt by individuals at our former church. That's not the beautiful thing. That's the ugly truth.

But the beautiful thing is that we all know that people aren't perfect, but God is. People hurt each other, but God heals. People break your trust, but God keeps all His promises. And the promise that he'll provide a crown of beauty instead of ashes just keeps showing up in my life. And that's a really beautiful thing.

Day 1.
Day 2: Morning Coffee
Day 3: It's OK to Break for Bugs 
Day 4: Supper and Cards 
Day 5: Running with Randy
Day 6: At Cataloochee 
Day 7: A Brand New Thing
Day 8: Alma Mater 
Day 9: Writing Group 
Day 10: Big Brother, Baby Nephew 
Day 11: Little Girls
Day 12: Boy Home 
Day 13: Quiet 
Day 14: Family Legends 
Day 15: Comfort Food 
Day 16: Family Legends 2 
Day 17: Sleep 
Day 18: Anticipation (AKA, Beauty in Cleaning) 
Day 19: Soup and Pumpkins
Day 20: Old Friends, Brand New