The Most Beautiful Thing

Picture taken by: Sarah Sexton

It was a quiet day in the town. There were men sifting rocks in the river. Others were striking at rocks in the mine. Children were playing. Mothers were watching, and silently, above on a tree, a little branch watched as everything was happening. As time passed by, the little branch saw how the man sifting rocks in the river found gold. He saw the rocks in the mine be cleaned and found to be diamonds. The branch grew thicker and longer and found itself farther and farther away from the tree. Time passed, and he saw that the gold and diamond had formed a beautiful ring, but for himself, he found no purpose. He thought that as long as he held on to the tree he could one day hold a nest. One day, there were very strong winds, and the branch let go from the tree and fell to the ground. Frustrated and discouraged, he yelled at God whom he had heard of from the priest in the town.

“God! Where are you? Why do you allow things to be beautiful and others to be ugly? Why do you allow things to have a purpose and others to just be? Why do you let things happen? I wish I could be that ring! I wish I could bring people together!”

In the town, there was a man and a woman sitting on a bench outside the church. “You know I love you?”, asked the man.

The girl laughed, “I do”.

Now, the girl had seen the gold diamond ring in the store, and her eyes lit up when he said, “I am going to find you the most beautiful thing to show my love for you”.

The man, on the other hand, had seen the branch that had fallen near the forest. After his talk, he set out to find it.

The branch had overheard the couple’s conversation, and was surprised when the man walked his way and picked him up.

“You will be the perfect gift,” said the man. “It’ll hurt, but you’ll be perfect”.

The man was a carpenter, and the branch knew it. He had seen dark pieces of wood full of splinters become something beautiful. The branch was willing to go through the pain so he could be something useful for the couple. It seemed his prayers were answered.

The man took the branch back to his workshop and immediately began to work. There was sawdust. There was sweat. There was planning. There was sweeping. Finally, the man swept the sweat off his brow and blew the sawdust away.

It seemed like forever from the girl’s perspective. She had arrived early to the church’s bench because she was so excited for the gift. She could just picture the ring. She had seen it a million times when she passed by the shop. She saw Joseph coming closer and she stood to greet him. He was holding a paper bag. He couldn’t possible have the ring in there. Could he?

“Michelle,” he started, “I have something for you”.

Michelle held her breath. She remembered how many times she had prepared saying “yes” in front of the mirror, but he didn’t kneel down. Instead, he put the bag on the ground and got out something and stood in front of her.

“I found the most beautiful thing. Something that seems neither of us is worthy of”.

She looked at him confused, and he held out the cross he had made from the branch.

“What is it?”

“It’s a plus sign. It’s what I want to keep us together. I was going to get you a ring,” he said, “but I realized this was the greatest gift I could give you. I saw this branch fall, and I thought ‘the greatest gift I can give her, is to remind her every day that she is a child of God. The best way I can treat her is as a daughter of God. I saw this branch and I thought, how lucky to be made of something that can be turned into a cross. How lucky to be a reminder of a great love.’ So, that’s what I give you. A reminder of great love. I promise to always bring you closer to Him. I promise to always turn to Him when I feel like I can’t turn to you. I promise to remind you every day to love Him more”.

Sometimes like the branch, we have to go through painful transformation. We have to let go of what we want to be, and trust that God has a better plan for us than we ever could have for ourselves. Sometimes through our suffering, great miracles come. We just have to trust. We have to let go. We have to trust God.