Grace Of God And Flaws Of MenSýnishorn

Before and After 

With Sarah, we find a dramatic spiritual transformation in her life. Sarah’s ‘before’ picture is characterized by her beauty, her barrenness and her bitterness.

Sarah’s beauty was legendary. Sarah was so extraordinary in her beauty that two powerful leaders – Pharaoh and King Abimelech – wanted to make her their own. 

Sarah’s ‘before’ story is also marked by barrenness. For twenty-five years (and even before that) Sarah longed for a child. But nothing changed. Day after day, Sarah waited for a child. 

Blessed with beauty, but grieved by her barrenness, Sarah became a bitter woman.

These three qualities - beauty, barrenness and bitterness – continue to mark our lives today. 

In today’s world, we are all in pursuit of physical beauty. It’s a fleeting and frail beauty. It’s a beauty that entrances us for a moment – and then leaves us wanting. 

In chasing after this beauty that can never satisfy, we come up empty. It’s a grasping, a chasing, a constant striving that leaves us exhausted and empty. This type of beauty leads to spiritual barrenness.

And when we wander long enough in that spiritual barrenness, we end up bitter.

We allow ourselves to become a spitting image of Sarah’s ‘before’ picture: perhaps outwardly “beautiful,” but barren and bitter on the inside. 

But God changed the ending to Sarah’s story. Sarah gave birth to a son and her ‘after’ picture is remarkably different. Sarah’s temporary beauty and her bitterness are replaced by the unfailing beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. 

God is in the business of transformation.

He takes the bitter, the broken and the barren and He replaces is with inner beauty, wholeness and fulness. Through the power of the Cross, God transforms us into the image and likeness of Christ Jesus. That is jaw-dropping change that no picture can ever capture!