Today we celebrate Easter and I am thinking of a verse from one of Saint Paul's letters: "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation; old thins have passed away; behold, all things have become new."

 I am thinking of those words because I have just finished reading a story of a young Russian boy who felt that he was just down right ugly. He would look at himself in the mirror and recite the same words aloud; "My nose is too wide and it is quite ugly. My lips are far too thick and they are ugly, my eyes are too small, they too are ugly. My hands and feet are too big."  The boy fell into a great depression because he believed he was so ugly that no one could ever love him. He did have a deep faith in God, so every night he would pray for a miracle.

Every night the young boy would ask God for a miracle that would transform him and turn him into a handsome man that everyone would admire and love. Every night he would pray this way. Every morning he would look in the mirror and see the same ugly face looking back at him.

The young boy was Count Tolstoy. Although he never got the miracle he prayed for - he always considered himself ugly - he was eventually greatly admired. In one of his many famous books he wrote that he had learned something important over the years. He had discovered through the difficulties of daily life that the physical beauty that he had longed for as a young boy was not they only kind of beauty that life offered. He also learned that physical beauty was not the best kind of beauty. The best kind of beauty, the one he thought was most pleasing to God, was the beauty that came when someone was of a strong good character. The person whose heart was in the right place and who stood up for others - that person possessed the best kind of beauty. Once Tolstoy had learned this truth, he went about writing stories that told of the importance of courage, conviction, and of being there for those who are in need.

As a young boy, Tolstoy had asked God to transform him, to change him into something new. Over the years God did change that young boy. God re-created him through his life experiences and his faith into a great man, a man whose heart was filled with love and compassion.

As Saint Paul told the Corinthians of his day,  "If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation..."  This certainly was true of Tolstoy and it can be true for you too. This is what Easter is all about.