Behold, I make all things new . . . (Rev. 21:5)

There are many heart-warming stories that have come from the tragedy in Boston. The most recent is the news that wounded veterans have come to work with the victims, helping them learn how to live and function without certain limbs. As amputees, they are offering their experience, strength, and hope to those injured by the two explosions on Boylston Street.

In recovery circles, we are told that, one day, our experience will benefit others. For most, when we first hear this, it’s hard to imagine how the drinking and various messes of our pasts could ever help someone else. Then, it happens . . .  a call from a friend who knows someone who needs to stop drinking, a crumbling marriage seeks counsel from someone who’s been through it, a recently laid-off banker reaches out to the lawyer who was disbarred. Suddenly, the pain and trauma of the past is transformed, death is resurrected, and the miracle of new life is there for all to see.

Imagining the soldier walking down the hall on his prosthetic limb to the room of the young girl who no longer has a left calf or foot, is powerful to say the least. That the two sit beside one another and talk about what happened, their feelings of loss, anger, and sadness, is poignant still. But when they work to learn how to walk together, the moment becomes indescribable.

Born out of darkness, it is a moment of great light. Out of sadness, it speaks of the deepest kind of joy. It also reminds us that whatever our life experiences have been, God can use them to transform the life of another . . . and transform ours in the process as well.