The wrinkled man in the wheelchair with the legs wrapped, the girl with her face punctured deep with the teeth marks of a dog, the mess of the world, and I see - this, all this, is what the French call d'un beau affreux, what the Germans call hubsch-hasslich - the ugly-beautiful. That which is perceived as ugly transfigures into beautiful. What the postimpressionist painter Paul Gauguin expressed as 'Le laid peut etre beau' - The ugly can be beautiful. The dark can give birth to life; suffering can deliver grace.
Ann VoskampWriting is this act of faith - a bit like driving in the fog: you can hardly see just in front of you. But you trust God's leading you and you just write into the space you can see ahead of you.
Ann VoskampThe brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest light to all the world.
Ann VoskampDarkness transfigures into light, bad transfigures into good, grief transfigures into grace, empty transfigures into full. God wastes nothing โ โmakes everything work out according to his plan.โ (Ephesians 1:11).
Ann VoskampThanksgiving-giving thanks in everything-prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ.
Ann Voskamp