Beauty from Ashes

I'm always humbled when we visit our friends in Cincinnati. They all live quite intentionally in neighborhoods ridden with crime and drugs, believing meanwhile God has called them to redeem the brokenness that surrounds them. Every time I visit these dear friends, I do so with excitement over all that God is doing and a sort of heaviness at all of the sadness they are faced with daily as it pertains to watching six year-olds look after their one year-old sisters and brothers at the park, walking by drug deals, receiving cat-calls and pleas for money from drunk men, and the list goes on.

And yet, there is so much beauty. Old buildings being rehabbed. Colorful murals on old brick walls. People with homemade wine and gingerbread, offering up their songs on the banjo, sung by children, to neighbors in order to celebrate Jesus' birth. Old diners that still play "I Love Lucy" all day long. Diversity. Passion. And yes, that list goes on too.