GoldSample

Hidden Beauty

What struck me most the first time I walked through an African slum was the lack of colour and vibrancy that is seen in so many other parts of that continent. There were mud huts, mud walls, mud floors and mud rivers. Mud, as far as the eye could see.

There is no natural beauty in the slum. No fruit trees growing, no plants and flowers, no pretty curtains or brightly decorated houses, no pictures or colours. There are just ramshackle homes that are mostly empty, save for a couple of possessions, and lots of mud. 

“Beauty” is not a word that springs to mind when you enter the slum. Yet, if you choose to look deeper – to search beyond what can been seen with the natural eye into the unseen – you will find a depth of beauty hidden there that is so raw, resilient and real, it will take your breath away. It is not immediately obvious, but it is there all the same. Discovering it is life-changing and powerful.

Behind the TV images, government statistics and relief charity adverts are the hearts and lives of real people. Men, women and children who, just like you and I, were knitted together in their mother’s womb. Whom He created, fearfully and wonderfully, and whose lives are packed full of undiscovered potential and destiny. 

They also need to hear the news that they have a Creator who deeply loves them, who has a plan and a purpose for their lives that is good. They need to be told that there is hope, redemption and love, right there, waiting for them. 

They may not be able to see it, understand it, or even conceive of it, but nevertheless it is there. 

The heart of their Heavenly Father longs for them to know this truth, to experience this reality, to be set free from every fear and bondage that lays claim to their lives. 

So, just as we have so freely received this for ourselves, so now freely we must go and give it away. 

It doesn’t really matter where you live, or who are the “poor” that surround you. I say to my team all the time that poverty wears many different faces and carries many different disguises. 

Whether you live in a slum or a palace, the inner city or the leafy suburbs, is irrelevant – that’s just geography. What matters is what you are doing with what you have received; how you give of yourself each day, to demonstrate a life of hope, love and peace to those are around you.