“I don’t want to save the world,” she whispered, “I just want to make it a little more beautiful.”

“Well, isn’t that cliché?” the cynic might ask in response. “Doesn’t she know about all the hurt and pain going on in the world right now? How could making a little part of the world more beautiful help at all?”

Yes. Yes, she knows. She knows of people fleeing their homeland, bombs bursting apart in hospitals, the dead being buried in mass graves, disease tragically taking so many lives, families split apart, children crying themselves to sleep.

She can’t stop any of that from happening. And she’s not looking for a façade of happiness, a fake smile to paste over aching souls, or cheap “feel-good” emotions to put a band-aid on a flesh wound.

Instead, she is hoping to bring some of God’s beauty into the ugliness of a fallen world. Some of his love into the hatred of warring people. Some of his truth into the jungle of lies.

She hopes to plant flowers in abandoned lots.

She hopes to paint pictures to reveal hidden light.

She hopes to give hugs to those who are feeling sad.

She hopes to laugh with those who are feeling joy.

She hopes to sit and listen to another’s hopes and dreams.

She hopes to encourage someone in their giftings.

She hopes to gather people around with warm mugs and soft blankets.

She hopes to sing songs and dance dances and pray prayers that lift spirits and connects lives.

She hopes to be a friend who cares deeply about all that others are going through.

She hopes to care less about herself so that others might be lifted up.

She hopes to have such an intimate relationship with her heavenly Father that others are drawn to him because of it.

She hopes to tell stories that matter and live hers like it does.

She hopes that when she dies, the people who come to her funeral will say, “Because of her, I loved Christ more. Because of her, my life had more joy and beauty. Because of her, I followed Christ’s calling for my life. Because of her, I became who God meant me to be. Because of her, I saw the face of God more clearly.”

This is making the world a little more beautiful. Not so that more attention can be drawn to how beautiful we are. But so that we can draw more attention to the beauty of the Creator.

He has not left us without hope.

He has not left us without light.

He has not left us without beauty.

He has not left us without himself.

May we be quick to showcase that beauty and light and hope to a world desperately in need of it.

 

Photo by Shashi Chaturvedula on Unsplash.