We always hear that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Maybe that’s why we miss so many beautiful things that happen all around us: the beauty of when a Christian forgives someone else; the beauty of a new school year where students and teachers joyfully learn and grow in God’s word; the beauty of families who bring their children to Sunday school; the beauty of God providing for us each and every day. Beautiful things are happening all around us.

And beautiful things are happening to us. Right now, as a matter of fact. But do we always see them, or do we get lost in all of the ugly things that happen in our life?

Those ugly things are the result of the ugly sin in our life. But so many times we get focused on just the outward symptoms: the money problems, the poor health, the family troubles. We think if we could just get those fixed, we'd be fine. But the problem with that is that there is a spiritual problem underneath the surface of every physical problem we face. Sin causes trouble in this world, and it is the source of trouble in our life.

If we're going to be able to handle the ugly, we need to handle the spiritual things in our life. But it's hard. So hard!

But not for Jesus. Jesus changes us. We can put all the spiritual bandaids we want on our problems (mindless entertainment, busy-ness, drugs/alcohol, over eating, over exercising, etc.) but until Jesus deals with your spiritual "ugly", your efforts will always come up short.

So Jesus gives us something beautiful. He gives us his life. Could you imagine living with Jesus? Never a hateful word, never a mean action, never an unkind thought! Every moment of his life he lived perfectly for you. His life was beautiful. And on the cross he took that beautiful life of his and he covered over the ugliness of your life. And on that same cross, he took your ugliness of sin and put it on his own heart, his own soul, and he was punished instead of you.

This is how Jesus changes us. He gives us his beauty. And with the spiritual problem fixed by Jesus, the problems we face everyday...we can handle them! By God's grace they become opportunities for us to trust and rely on God's power, not on ours.

Jesus has made us beautiful!