“Divorce looks good on you.”

It was intended as a compliment. I understood the sentiment, but I didn’t want the person to get the wrong idea.

Divorce doesn’t look good. It’s ugly. It’s sad. It’s disorienting, fracturing, and damaging.

Whatever looks good about it – whether it’s on the front end when someone sees it as the only option or on the back end when someone comes through the brokenness with healing, health, and happiness – it’s only a glimpse, and it can be misconstrued.

Yes, I am healing. I am healthy. And I choose contentment and joy. But it is not because of the divorce I’ve been walking through for more than a year. It’s because of the choices I’ve been faced with along the way. It’s the purifying grace and refining faith. It’s the abundant friendships and fresh perspectives. It’s because God brings beauty from ashes. He has invited me to walk with him so that I can walk like him. He has taught me to praise in the pain. He has allowed my life to be fractured into wholeness.

And for that, I am grateful.