That was the word I heard over and over again from doctors, nurses, therapists, aides, techs--even the wonderful woman who brought my meals on a tray. 

"Huh?" I said.  You could've  fooled me!  I thought my knee looked like a horribly swollen kielbasa with a zipper!  I couldn't even imagine connecting the idea "beautiful" with the phenomenon, "Stan's leg after total knee replacement surgery."  But I am deeply grateful for the people who can! 

There are certain kinds of beauty that anyone can recognize.  I shot the photo below on a road in Nicaragua last month.  I was returning from a poor rural area after a day spent with Dr. Laura Parajon and the dedicated team of AMOS Health and Hope.  I had been inspired by what I saw all day... and then we came around a bend and saw this:

The tiny little photo on this screen does no justice at all to what we beheld at the end of that rain-soaked afternoon:  the most complete rainbow I could ever remember!  I think anyone who had been with us that afternoon would have been just as overwhelmed by the beauty of the moment as we were. 

But, my leg, just after knee replacement surgery?  To see "beauty" there, requires a lot of special training and experience!   I sure couldn't see it.  Perhaps you can.  If you'd like to try, click on the following link, which will take you to several shots of the kielbasa-and-zipper.   

If you don't click on the link, I'll understand--my experience suggests that lots more folks find the sight unpleasant than "beautiful."  That's why I decided not to embed the knee photos directly in this journal, so you could skip them if you wanted to!

As I sat in Pennsylvania Hospital and listened to experienced medical practitioners talk about my "beautiful" knee, my mind jumped to another scene, where people caught a glimpse of hard-to-recognize beauty.  At the beginning of Mark Chapter 14, an unnamed woman takes a whole bottle of expensive perfume and pours it out on Jesus' head.  His closest followers react angrily, complaining about the terrible waste of a precious resource.  Jesus says what she has done is "a beautiful thing." 

Like the difference between the way I and the medical experts looked at my knee, the difference between Jesus and his followers that day was one of understanding.  I looked at my knee and saw only swelling, discoloration and a wound.  Dr. Robert Booth and his highly skilled team saw a clean, well-closed incision, already making excellent progress toward healing.  Jesus' followers saw the waste of expensive perfume.  Jesus saw the faith-filled act of a woman who understood--in a way that his closest followers should have but did not--that Jesus was about to die.  Jesus saw the faith-filled act of a woman who did what she could to prepare him for burial.

For Mark, the gospel writer, the clash of perspectives over the act of the woman was actually just a mirror of the continuing clash between Jesus and his closest followers over the kind of "Messiah" he would turn out to be.  Since Mark 8:31, Jesus had been telling the disciples he was planning to die on their behalf.  Just as the woman poured out the perfume, Jesus would be pouring out his life.  Mark makes it clear that the disciples rejected both acts.  They saw both Jesus' death and the spilled perfume as terrible waste.  Only after the resurrection did even Jesus' own disciples come to see that his death on the cross had been "a beautiful thing."

The judgment about whether Jesus' death was a terrible waste or "a beautiful thing" depends, like the assessment of my knee and the assessment of the woman's use of perfume, on the understanding we bring to what we are seeing. 

Today, Day #14 of my new life with a bionic knee, I am grateful for the knowledge and skill of Dr. Booth and all the medical professionals who have taken such excellent care of me.  Their comments about my "beautiful" knee bring me hope that I will soon be able to walk without pain.

I am grateful, too, for the opportunities I have to help others to see the beauty in Jesus' work on our behalf--the beauty that Jesus' first followers initially rejected, but ultimately embraced.  Whatever our cultural background and personal history, we human beings generally have to struggle with the message of Jesus.  It has elements that, like the staples in my knee, seem anything but beautiful.  But, once we catch a glimpse of the beauty there, it is hope-inspiring and life-transforming like nothing else.   It is a great privilege to work with people around the world to help them see that beauty!

During these days of limited mobility following surgery, I have been corresponding with people around the world and preparing for the great opportunities that lie ahead in 2009.  I am excited about the chance to continue working with Pastor Giam and the leaders in Vietnam.  I'm looking forward to the opportunity to lend a hand to Mexican Baptists, both up on the U.S. border and down deep in Chiapas, near Guatemala.  Additional trips to Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America are all in the works.  I can't wait to test out my bionic knee on all those airport security machines!!!!!

Thank you for your support of this ministry!  The challenge of getting all of these opportunities both prayed for and paid for is immense.  I am grateful for your partnership in mission!

Blessings,
Stan