All of you will know that Isaiah 61:3 is a very special verse to me, particularly the part where God promises to bestow on His people the crown of beauty instead of ashes. This morning I discovered that the Hebrew word for ‘beauty’ (pe’er) is an anagram of the Hebrew word for ‘ashes’ (‘eper). One author comments that if we rearrange these letters once more, we find the Hebrew word for healing. ‘God will not only rearrange the letters to give us beauty for ashes, but He will also continue to rearrange the letters to heal us of all the wounds that are associated with these ashes.’ (‘Hebrew Word Study: Beyond The Lexicon’, Chaim Bentorah)
I find it fascinating that beauty and ashes – things which seem diametrically opposite in our experience – share a common etymological root in Hebrew. It’s a reminder yet again of the divine exchange which God promises us. Transformation comes not so much because God imposes something on us, but because He transforms our brokenness into beauty, our blackness into colour. He is a God who transforms situations in ways we find hard to fathom, but the effects of what He does are visible to all.
