Beauty for Ashes

She feels unloved, unloveable, undesirable. Each step draws her deeper into the mire of self doubt, self consciousness, and self loathing. Her emotions fade, flatten, and fail. Her spirit falls into the abyss.

But she is not alone.

Deep beneath the roaring flames, buried in the coals she has heaped on herself and those life has hurled upon her, she feels a cooling presence and senses a light she cannot see, and a hand she cannot feel. In the silence she feels a whisper.

She opens her eyes, somehow unafraid despite the darkness. She sees two tiny reflections—flames dancing in his eyes. His shadowed face erases her fear as he steps closer and light shimmers from his white robes and his skin as though he had bathed in a thousand suns.

Unloved no more. Beyond lovable. She felt his irrepressible desire for a deeper love than she had ever known.

Without another thought, she stepped toward him. Each step lighter as though she were floating, flying. His thoughts whirled around her and through her, casting her a tiny glimpse of how he saw her.

Never in a million lifetimes could she have felt more self-aware yet more selfless. For the first time, she saw the real her. The one he sees. Not unrefined. Not discarded dross, but the purest gold. So pure. Transparent. Illuminating. Flawless.

He didn’t overlook her flaws. The flame in his eyes burned through them revealing the treasure he had created. The treasure he had intended. And the treasure he would share with the world.

There is no depth of despair so deep that he would not plunge into it to find his treasure.

All of her shame, guilt, doubt, and all of her worries fell into the ashes as she rose on newfound wings.

The emptiness erased, she stood in front of her mirror. Her heart refused to see the ashes of death that the life had burned into her. She looked through the windows of her soul and saw the tiny flames dancing in his eyes. He was with her in the fire. And the only things burned were the things she was never meant to be. And she saw herself as he saw her. Refined. Lovable. Loved. And Unstoppable.

She saw herself as the author of life sees you.