Savoring the Beauty around Us
We are bombarded with negative images every day. The news lately is mostly bad; budget cuts, government shutdowns, wars, rumors of wars and tsunamis. Our own lives can be filled mostly with surviving; paying bills, finding a job, getting tax returns completed. With life raining its troubles upon us, it is often easy to overlook the simple beauty that lies all around us.
By training our eyes, ears and hearts to find beauty in the midst of our trouble; we can find comfort, hope and joy to get through the day. Little spurts of spiritual adrenaline come to us when we find and capture something uniquely beautiful: like flowers from our yard.
This spring season has yielded some incredible blooms here in the Deep South. The dogwoods and azaleas have been nothing short of spectacular. The image for today’s writing came from my picking of several branches of azaleas next door in my parent’s yard. Tended with love for many years, this small picking of a little bowl of flowers represents the menagerie of color found right before me.
I’ve always noticed beautiful blooms of flowers and the sounds of birds singing, but as I grow older it is like God has unlocked a new appreciation and wonder for these simple, but gorgeous landscapes. A walk down the road and the witnessing of bloom after bloom as backdrops for the songs of blue birds and cardinals seem to melt my problems, even if but for a few moments.
Learning to savor the beauty around us is a God-given gift of which most all of us possess in latent amounts. It is up to us to unlock it. Surrounded by life’s darkness, we can always find and savor small beauty if we seek it. That beauty may not be the dogwoods and azaleas, but might be found in a sunset, a misting rain or a unique landscape. It may be the sound and innocence of children playing and laughing in a school yard.
God lets us pick a few azaleas or hear some sweet sounds to remind us that the darkness can never overcome the light. Savoring the beauty around us is our way of clinging to the hope of an eternity full of blooms. It reminds us that all tears will someday be dried.
Pray now that God unlocks for you a small beauty. Be looking for it; you will know when you find it. When you find it; savor it, then give a look and nod to heaven, and thank the One who sent it to you.