Beauty For Ashes

There are so many things I could say and countless experiences I could share, but this is just one of many that has changed my life forever.

         The Sunday started just like any other- breakfast. I was making a traditional Indian breakfast (grilled cheese sandwich) when I so awesomely touched my finger to the pan and paused and it singed and burned my flesh. I knew it would fester and hurt the rest of the trip but it wasn’t that bad, so I forgot about it.

         That evening after church a few Girls headed to a local coffee shop. As we sat and chatted about the trip, I looked down and touched my fingers searching for a tinge of pain. It was then I realized, God had healed me ! God had healed my finger. Could this happen? I hadn’t even asked him for this, yet he had so graciously taken away my pain. I know it sounds silly; it was just a small burn, but the Lord had so easily taken this small annoyance. I couldn’t even find the burn anymore; all of the evidence had vanished.

         I sat there wondering if I should tell someone, and finally couldn’t keep it in any longer as I sat at the table I began to whisper with a friend what the Lord had done; He had been so good.

         A few hours later I brushed something with my pinky and I felt a small pain. I realized that in my earlier excitement I had forgotten to check that finger. God didn’t heal me. All of a sudden I felt so stupid! I had even claimed healing. God I already told someone you healed me, I thought to myself. How can I go back now, and say I was wrong and you didn’t heal me. I remember thinking to myself, God what is the point in all of this?

          In that moment I felt the Lord so clearly say that he was going to heal a woman of her scars that week, and she wouldn’t even ask him to. I started remembering the stories I had been told only a few days earlier when I arrived in India of how the men in some places were known for burning women by pouring acid on them or pouring kerosene on them and lighting them on fire. This was a form of punishment for their women.  My stomach cringed as I recalled the stories. These burns would become a sign of shame and ugliness to them.

         I thought back about that sweet woman, Lishnee, I had meet only a few days before at the CSW (commercial sex worker) Christmas party we held. I remembered the other women flaunting their best clothes and feeling so beautiful in our fashion show. I thought of how she saw herself as nothing more than an ugly woman. She had been burned; A sign of punishment no doubt- and she considered herself unworthy. Finally after much pleading and begging on my part, Lishnee walked through the crowd of people, this time, beaming. Everyone screamed and cheered as she strutted her stuff down the isle. People were calling HER beautiful!

         I don’t know what God meant that day when he told me he would heal someone’s burn, but I know that that day Lishnee was healed and her, once ashes, were turned into beauty. Now when I glance back at my small scar, I am reminded of a beautiful woman, once bound by the scars of her past, now elegantly dancing through a room, KNOWING her beauty had been restored.


Chelsea
Bangalore Volunteer Christmas  '11