Beauty for ashes.......
Living with my dad for about six weeks reminds me of picking through the rubble of a burned out house and unexpectedly finding an heirloom painting, precious and beautiful, untouched by the devastation. So often I have asked myself, "Why did he live? What purpose could this interminable journey of suffering have?" I don't have the answers to how the world works or how God works in the world, but my soul stands breathless as I have watched how the finger of God has created a magnum opus of Chet Littlefield's life. It is a simple masterpiece, to be sure, nothing sophisticated or hard to interpret. But to see it is nothing short of stunning, breath-taking, awe-inspiring. I see it in the way he watches the birds. I see it in the way he coaxes Sammie to jump up into his lap. I see it in the way he slowly walks around the neighborhood or creeps up the stairs. I see it in the way he struggles to engage in conversation and never gets angry in his failure to find the right words. I see it in the way he revels in my cooking, smiling and saying, "very good" with heartfelt enthusiasm. He embraces the minutiae of life and elevates it to the sublime while patiently enduring his crushing limitations. So I think I understand a little bit about why God allowed him to receive this life's sentence.

When I began this blog, my intent was to magnify the beauty of a life that has experienced suffering. The film Life is Beautiful influenced my choice of a name because I was fascinated by the tone and message of that film--finding life to be beautiful amidst the most horrifying of circumstances.  I have written about my own journey of pain and finding God present in the thick of it. It has become a theme of my life--hope and belief in the beauty of life despite the difficulties of life. My father embodies the very essence of the purpose of this blog--to reveal the beauty of a life couched in suffering and loss. Beauty for ashes...