From Ashes To EDEN

 

I was running through Ho‘omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kāneʻohe, Hawaii.

My head was down the entire time, just trying not to trip over roots or uneven pavement. I wasn’t thinking about scenery. I wasn’t thinking about anything beautiful.

I was just trying to get through the run.

But near the end, as I approached the small lake, I finally looked up — and my breath was taken away.

(Well… whatever breath I had left after running.)

In front of me stood the towering Kāneʻohe mountains — misty, vibrant green, waterfalls cascading down their crevices. They looked alive. Majestic. Almost sacred.

And I thought about how those mountains were formed.

They were born from ash. From upheaval. From violent eruption.
They likely were not beautiful at first.

But over time — by obeying the laws God set in nature — they became breathtaking.

And I realized:

We are like that.

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us even more than those mountains. Through obedience to God’s laws and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, what once felt broken, messy, or desolate in us can become something even more beautiful than before.

In Ezekiel 36:11, the Lord promises:

“I will do better unto you than at your beginnings.”

Life with Jesus Christ doesn’t just restore us to where we were.

It makes us better than we were.

Yes, we will face challenges. Yes, sometimes everything feels like ash and upheaval. But as we hold onto Him and His gospel, life — and especially eternal life — becomes better than we can imagine.

Just a few verses later, in Ezekiel 36:35–36, it says:

“This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden…
Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.”

I love that phrase: “I will do it.”

There is no hesitation.
No doubt.

The Lord builds ruined places.
He plants what was desolate.
And others notice.

He promises to do it.

I recently heard a woman share her story. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after learning from the missionaries. Her husband didn’t want to listen at first, and she respected that. But months later, he told her he wanted to be baptized too.

When the missionaries asked why, he said:

“Because after my wife was baptized, I fell in love with her again — and I want to be part of that.”

He saw the Lord planting what had been desolate.
He saw the change Christ brought into her life — and into their marriage.

That day at Ho‘omaluhia, I needed to see those mountains.

The next day my world had come tumbling down.

And when it did, the Holy Spirit whispered to me to remember that experience from the day before

I held onto the hope that beauty could come from the ashes of my own life — if I would just trust and obey God as faithfully as those mountains had obeyed the laws placed upon them.

Thirteen years later, I can promise you:

He did it.

He made my life exponentially more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.

From desolate…
to planted.
From ruined…
to restored.
From ash…
to breathtaking.

And He will do it for you too.