Where do you see beauty?

We walk in shallow unconscious living at times.

With a lack of recognition of the gifts that are to be unwrapped.

We move through the moment with such excessive speed to get to the next thing that we often miss the moment we are in.

Our time is so valuable that we don’t want to waste any.

Yet the time that is truly wasted are those times we don’t stop to savor what is around us. 

Beautiful things are typically not the ones of materialism.  Not those that we place monetary value on.  Those things that we place in a glass case or vault so no one steals them.

They are the things that can’t be stolen.  That hold no earthly value at all but are more valuable in heart than anything we could ever ask for.  And sometimes those that we don’t even think we deserve.

It is the music we hear & in blue sky days.

It is in the sound of raindrops & of thunder.

The snowcapped mountains.

The blue bonnet covered hillsides of Austin, Texas in the spring.

The breeze that blows through my home on a summer afternoon.

It is in the arms of a grandfather that hugs me.

It is in the miracle of new life.  Of meeting your child for the very first time.

It is the moment of death.  Of being present to usher someone into his heavenly place where he will be Whole.  Healed.  And finally home. 

It is the laughter of my children.

The times that bring tears to my eyes.  Not for any reason but feeling pure joy in a simple moment. 

When my kids run into my arms when I’ve been gone longer than 10 minutes.  When I watch my husband play with them.  Jump in the fall leaves with them.  When I hear them singing ‘Jesus Loves Me’ over the monitor after they are put to bed.  THAT is beauty.

Beauty, is seeing my mom delight in being able to sit with them & read book after book as they fight over who will sit on which side of her lap.  She may not FEEL as beautiful as the year’s do, what she feels, is irreparable harm, but she IS beautiful.  She loves with a heart that only a grandmother could have & in that, exists a radiance.

Beautiful is being able to embrace a friend that is going through a difficult time.  To be the one that she cries with.  The one she talks with.  The one that she trusts.  The one I can pray for.  And having one in return.  That is beauty.

Beauty is in the missionary that puts her entire heart into leaving someone’s world just a little better than it was the day before.  In placing her needs on hold because someone needs food or healing.  Shelter or water.  Prayer or hope. 

It is in the simple gift of touch.

Holding the hand of someone that you love.

 

Beauty requires nothing but an open heart of the person that is recognizing it.

Beauty does not always lie in the eye of the beholder.

It rests in the heart of the one blessed enough to embrace it.

The one that is willing to step forward & look beyond what is right in front of them. Or do just that….finally recognize that sometimes IT IS right in front of them.

Beauty surrounds us.

At every turn, it is there to bring a gift. 

It is there for us to embrace.

It beckons us to linger a while.

To savor it’s goodness & the way it makes our heart delight.

Where do you see beauty?  Will you see it differently now?  And when you do, will you embrace it with a full heart?  Will you let it settle into your soul where it belongs?  Because when you do, it is yours.....to keep!  Forever!