Beauty in the world

There's alot about this world that is hard, ugly, painful and broken.  Just watch the news or read headlines and that becomes immediately clear.  Or have a heart to heart talk with someone and it won't be long before once again you are reminded of the pain and brokenness of the world as that conversation goes beneath the surface to the tender and vulnerable places of people's lives.  Or simply think about our own personal stories.  Failures, missed opportunities, hurts either imposed by others or that we imposed, and so on.  It can be downright discouraging.

A shift that I have sensed occurring in my own life over the last several years is to be able to see beyond the brokenness of the world in a whole new way.  Increasingly, as I view the world I see Beauty. There really is Beauty in the world.  It was there all along, I'm sure, and I just wasn't able to see it as clearly as I do now. Maybe its a result of getting older, or maybe its an answer to prayers I've prayed over the years to be able to view the world around me through the eyes of the Creator. I don't really know, I just know I find myself amazed throughout the day.  It matters because I see people, life and situations in a different light. Small things seem so amazingly beautiful.  Here are some examples from just the past few days:

• Laying next to my daughter at bedtime and listening to old Christmas classics together on the iPad before she goes to sleep
• Watching one of my students interact with a very sick elderly lady in such a caring and compassionate manner
• Seeing the love on the husband's wrinkled face for this same elderly lady
• The way the sun comes streaming in through a window to shine light on the bed of a sick person
• Sitting and drinking coffee in the quiet of the early morning hours before everyone is up
• Bringing eggrolls home, thanks to my mom, from the Relief Sale for my son and seeing how happy he is (he LOVES eggrolls)
• Gazing out the window and being drawn in by the various shades of color and textures of living things
• Looking up into the vast blue sky and noticing the shapes and contours of the clouds above the busyness below
• Watching things move in the wind
• Seeing people able to laugh and smile through their own personal pain.

Maybe, too, why this might matter is that part of how God makes all things new is simply by helping us to see things in a new way.  At any rate, may we each be able to see the incredible beauty in this world.

Finally, I leave you with one of my all time favorite songs....Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong