192- The Extreme Beauty

Andrew saw Peter the servant of the church and frankly said to him with bitterness, "I don’t know why God created me.

Nothing in me is good.

I’m a furious person.

A lot of times, I do grieve my father and my friends.

I did my best to live with humility and grace.

I promised God a lot of times not to get furious but I couldn’t.

What should I do?"

Peter answered, "Don’t get frustrated. Yesterday my wife and I stood in the garden, in front of an apple tree which was full of fruits. We picked up a delicious apple and as we were eating it, I said to the tree, ‘How beautiful and delicious you are! Your branches are full of fruits.'

My wife smiled and said, ‘Don't you remember how the fruits of this tree weren’t good for eating? But you mixed it with the seeds of another better tree. Your hands are those which made this tree beautiful and fruitful. If you didn’t feed it with the good seeds, it’d have been useless and fruitless and it should have been cut and burnt. Thank you my dear husband.'

What I did with the fruitless tree, my Lord Jesus Christ is doing with me. He gave me His life and fed me with it. He created of me a beautiful tree full of spiritual fruits. Without him, I don’t deserve except to be cut and thrown out in an eternal fire. Jesus is fulfilling His promise to me."

"I am the vine, and you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit,

For without Me you can do nothing" (John 15.5).

Andrew stayed silent for a few moments then he said to Peter, "But I’m very furious, will God rid me of this fury?"

Peter said, "Jesus will switch your anger to useful and holy anger."

Andrew said, "How? Is there a holy and useful anger?"

Peter said, "Definitely yes. Without anger, I can’t offer a true repentance. Let me be angry, not with others, but with myself. Let me rebel, not against people but against sin which intrudes on my life. This is the work of the Holy Spirit to remove our weaknesses and reshape them with His graceful and beautiful touches.

Andrew! I'll narrate to you a realistic story:

John Ruskin the artist found that one of his relatives was weeping bitterly and he asked about the reason behind that. She said, “I’ve a very precious handkerchief which has special memories for me. Some ink was spilt on it and stained it. I checked with more than one dry-cleaner companies but they all said that the ink couldn’t be cleaned. I felt very upset.””

The artist smiled and took her handkerchief and asked her to relax, as he would handle this problem. The artist headed to his workshop and drew a beautiful rose on the spot. He returned to his relative and gave her the handkerchief. She said in surprise, “This is not mine.”

He said, “No this is your handkerchief but I turned the ugly spot into a beautiful picture.”

The lady was very happy and thanked the artist who turned ugliness into a beauty.

This is what God, the Artist, does when His Holy Spirit absorbs us so as to transform us into a lively icon of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we find ourselves completely changed and renovated. We are reborn in the waters of baptism. God's spirit works in it without stopping."

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: الجمال الفائق.

God, my soul is in Your hands, You the Great Artist.

My soul is within Your hands oh God.

You are the Miraculous Artist who transforms my ugliness into great beauty.

It is You who turn my soul into a lovely icon.

Thank You God for all what I have is contributed to You.

The Banner of Heaven

Short Stories (Stories for the Youth) Books by Father Tadros Yacoub Malaty

A Pin or a Scorpion’s Sting